Jay Blades is best known as a successful television presenter appearing on shows including The Repair Shop and Money for Nothing, but he is a man of humble beginnings.
The furniture restorer, up-cycler and eco-designer, who describes himself as “passionate about sustainability and the environment“, had no formal training and left school at 15 with no qualifications.
And in a new interview with The Big Issue, Blades revealed how he struggled through his late teens and couldn’t afford food.
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“I was 19 and living in Luton. And I remember saying to myself, OK, I’ve got five tomatoes, they’re gonna last me for the whole week. I can have a quarter of a tomato for breakfast, a quarter for lunch, and a full half for dinner,” he said.
“On the fourth day that week I got a job in McDonald’s but I got sacked after about three days because I ate too many burgers while I was working. That was a really low point. I’d like to go back and tell myself it’ll get better than that.”