SUCCESS AGAINST THE ODDS

Pauline Campbell, 59, refused to let her childhood marked with racism stop her from achieving her dreams

- KIM WILLIS

As a child, I dreamt of becoming a lawyer. I’d been a bright student in the top streams at school, but by my teens I had lost my way. As a child of immigrant parents from the Caribbean in 1970s London, I was being told by bullies to go back to where I came from.

When an elderly woman told me and my Black friends to quieten down on the bus after school one day, I was horrified when other passengers turned on us and told us we didn’t belong in their country. My confidence was shattered and I couldn’t apply myself.

Instead of noticing a child who had shown promise was slipping, my teacher wrote me off.

As a group of us talked about schoolwork with one of my favourite teachers outside her office, I mentioned the fact that I wanted to go further academically after finishing my exams.