Jockey Lesley Sercombe: It took me a while to find out who I am

Lesley Sercombe celebrates winning the Britam Kenya Guiness race in 2018 (Stafford Ondego)

“I have struggled with certain aspects of my life especially in my early twenties, trying to figure out who I was. Many times I lost direction – three times, I did go the wrong direction, causing a lot of pain to my loved ones. Here, I was, young, and fashionable, full of life, successful, making some money, unlike my cohorts who were still students. I had so much free time, which, if you ask me, now, was all wasted. All of this ‘quality’ time I spent getting into the wrong company and habits. When I look back, these mistakes almost cost my life and, I am grateful to my family, loved ones and friends who never gave up on me.

Having had to pick my life these three times and have had to struggle to get out of the deep pits that I had let myself fall into, pick myself up and start from ground zero, start all over is quite a struggle. This has made me develop a lot of empathy with people, especially young adults who are going through these struggles.