I came with my mother to Sheffield in 1993, having been born in Somalia during the civil war 3 years earlier. I loved Broomhall but growing up was a daily challenge. Every road sign, instruction manual and bureaucratic letter was another mystery for us to solve as a team. We did homework together as we both needed to know what it was that the British called a tufaax (apple); or how to share amazement at the occasional Hilaac iyo onkod(Lightning and Thunder). We even put up with the casual racism that came our way together. I guess we thought it was to be expected, though I slowly began to realise that racism, no matter how casual, was like a grenade thrown at the foundations of your carefully constructed confidence. I went on to study at the University of Sheffield, become President of the Students' Union in Sheffield , work at the University of Sheffield and become a school governor at my old secondary school (Silverdale). So you'd be correct to say much of who I am is the product of this city.

Broomhall flats