So my story of hopefulness is a person Mina Smallman. it's actually a tragic story of despair, but she gives me great hope. Mina came to prominence when her two daughters were both murdered in an unprovoked random attack in a park in Wembley. On the media she's been unbelievably composed and articulate drawing attention to the fact that their deaths were not taken seriously by the police because of the colour of their skin. She said 'I think the notion that all lives matter is absolutely right, but it's not true.' And yes of course she's angry, but she has such dignity and such clarity. As a mother, she's completely broken but she's also an activist and I think she's extraordinary.

my story of hopefulness are Joe and George from London who started a company called artistic spaces, They now have roughly half a million square footage of warehouses which they rent out to artists. They began about 12 years ago by taking on a warehouse in South London and dividing spaces up to create opportunities for artists to create and musicians to have studios. I am inspired by their ethic to think big and not be afraid to fail because you won't do anything original if you think like that. But so much is about the grind. People often want to think and dream big, but they don't want to do the steps to get there but there are no shortcuts, it's just years and years of putting that effort in, During the challenging time of COVID they gave up spaces to store medical supplies and help create facilities for doctors. They have one of London's largest square footage of artists spaces and workshops and are my inspiration.

My story is Coral Vita who are breeding coral organisms that are resistant to rising temperatures and rising acidity in the ocean, I wish we hadn't didn't have to, but the fact we are largely pushing coral reefs towards extinction, suggests that the work of Coral Vita is going to be incredibly important. People who have that level of ambition and vision to take these vast, great living ecosystems and turn them back onto a healthy track are like a shot in the arm.

My hopeful story is the Reverend Paul Nicholson, who began life as a wine merchant and then became a priest and moved to Tottenham in London where he devoted himself to the service of the poorest of the poor. He commissioned research on benefits and the fact that they weren't enough to live on and he started this extraordinary campaign which was the living wage movement and persuaded London Mayor Ken Livingstone to take it up. I spoke to him the week before he died aged 87 and he was heading to Downing Street where he was going to beg sitting outside Downing Street to really experience what it was to have nothing and to sit on a pavement ignored by those who passed by. I offered to sit with him as I was quite worried about him but he refused 'I have to go alone because otherwise I won't experience what those I'm fighting for experience'. He lived an incredibly humble life in one room in Tottenham and the only thing he cared about was compassion. He ran a brilliant organisation called taxpayers against poverty, which is what it says on the tin and set up the Zacchaeus Foundation which works with homeless people and fights for the rights of benefit claimants. None of his energy was devoted to his ego, it was channelled straight into the work, he was a tuning fork for suffering and my hero.

A person that gives me hope is Bell hooks. An American professor, author, feminist, and social activist, and it's particularly her brave work on love that continues to inspire us to bring in the emotional and personal interchange work. We have to see the big picture but we always have to be rooted in ourselves, and we always have to look after the relationships we have with other people.

The person is my friend Paul who lives in LA. I think we all know somebody in our life who wakes up each day and makes the choice because it is a choice to walk on the sunny side of the street or take take an inventory of the things he's grateful for instead of things that he isn't. Paul is a caregiver for his son who was born blind and autistic but that's actually led him to many other things and inspires loads of people partly in response to how his son responds to music. He lives quite close to Skid Row, which is an area of downtown Los Angeles where there's thousands of people who are living on the streets and experiencing homelessness. Back in the day he went out with a few cheap CD Walkmans and started donating them with some music they could listen to and then he got some funding and it quickly transitioned into something much bigger. Paul managed to bring together all kinds of different people to volunteer to support and distribute essential products. But the main thing is that he knows everybody down there by name and he knows them and what they need and he helps them along when he can. These people are often dehumanised in the mainstream media as people you should be scared of, but the way that Paul does his work is just so inspiring to me and it always comes back to his son and the challenge that he was faced with. He decided to completely embody and make it his strength not a weakness.

I find many stories of hope by just observing people on a daily basis. Even this morning I noticed a man with a cart selling fruit trying to cross a busy road in front of me. Half way across the road, he stumbled and fruit spilled out onto the road. In that moment, cars stopped and many people came around him to help him back on his feet and pick up the fruit. People who do good often do what they do in silence and secrecy. They do not promote it.

I stumbled upon my hopeful story at the Tommy Hilfiger fashion frontier programme and they were one of the finalists. It's an organisation called clothes to good and they're based in South Africa. I was so inspired by what they do. They are empowering people through using waste that would ususally be thrown away as a tool to teach people with autism or disability how to weave and make things like weighted blankets. I was just so moved to see a work that empowers people and creatively recycles and upcycles.