Anything is possible - no matter what you think you can't achieve...

Published date22 January 2022
Publication titleCoventry Telegraph
Just six years ago, the restoration expert had all but given up on life

His marriage had broken down, his charity Out Of The Dark - where he taught disadvantaged youths to restore old furniture - had failed, and he was effectively homeless.

Car keys in hand, he had plans to end it all.

It was only due to his ex-wife alerting the police to his disappearance and a good friend taking him in that he didn't, he admits.

Yet today, less than a decade on, the 51-year-old upcycler's odds - and outlook - couldn't be more different, thanks in part to his TV presenting gig on The Repair Shop - the BBC hit which, now in its eighth series, invites a team of skilled restoration experts to breathe new life into cherished family heirlooms.

"I pinch myself sometimes," admits Jay, who has fronted the show since its 2017 inception.

"I've been working non-stop, so I haven't really had the chance to take on board what I've done. But [when I do] it's just like, 'You've done a lot. You've achieved a lot'.

"There's so much more I want to achieve, there are loads of things I want to do."

He's not kidding. In the last year alone, he's not only remained a constant on the small screen, he's also found time to publish his own inspirational memoir, received an MBE for his services to craft, grown his collaborative production company Hungry Jay Media, pushed on with social enterprise, got engaged to his long-term partner Lisa, and last but by no means least, learned to read.

The latter is to be documented in a one-off BBC1 film, Jay Blades: Learning To Read At 51.

Brought up by his single mother on a Hackney council estate ("There wasn't any care and attention given to people from that area - they were just left to their own devices"), Jay left school at 15 without any qualifications and nothing to his name - except a reputation as a great fighter.

Until now he has dealt with his limited literacy by requesting help from others - even down to accosting a stranger in the street to read him an important hospital letter.

"I've had to share everything with everybody!" he quips. "I just tell people, 'Yeah, I can't read, read this for me'. And they're just like, 'What?'

"People find it amazing that somebody can't read.

"It's like not everybody is a David Beckham, not everybody can kick the ball and get it in the back of the net, it just doesn't work like that. Some of us can't do these things."

So why embark on this journey now?

"I wanted to learn to read, for one," he says. "And two, to...

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