Prince Charles has named a former gang member as a Pride of Britain award winner, telling him ‘we need more people like you’.
Hezron Brown, 29, thought he was on the way to a routine interview at Dumfries House in Ayrshire when he was surprised by the heir to the throne.
He will receive the Prince’s Trust Young Achiever award tonight for his work with young people at risk of slipping into violent gang culture, after turning his own life around.
Homeless at 13, Mr Brown’s redemption came after a judge gave him a second chance following a robbery in his 20s and decided not to jail him.
Hezron Brown, 29, will receive the Prince’s Trust Young Achiever award tonight for his work with young people at risk of slipping into violent gang culture. Pictured with children Iyana, Lemari and T’lias
Prince Charles hailed him and said that ‘we need more people like you’ after meeting with him
Prince Charles told him: ‘It’s a huge credit to you and you’re a great ambassador for the Trust. We need more people like you to try and tackle this problem.’
Describing the meeting, Mr Brown said: ‘Prince Charles came in and told me I had won a Pride of Britain award for the work I had done.
‘I burst into tears, it was so overwhelming. It was such an honour to be told I had won this award, and for me to be able to say that it was because of him, because of the Prince’s Trust that I’d become the person I am today.
‘It was a privilege to be able to say that to him.’
Mr Brown, from Birmingham, suffered life-changing burns at the age of five after falling into a bath of boiling water.
It led to bullying at school and he resorted to violence as a coping mechanism.
After being expelled from two primary and secondary schools and smashing up his bedroom, his mother could no longer cope and asked him to leave home at just 13.
Mr Brown suffered life-changing burns at the age of five after falling into a bath of boiling water and it led to him being bullied and eventually slipping into a life of crime
Mr Brown was sleeping on the streets in his school uniform and living on just one school dinner a day.
He said: ‘I was scared. I was 13 and living on the streets, sleeping at the back of an old people’s home in Bromford.
‘I’d become dangerous, the teachers were scared of what I was capable of.
‘I used to get so angry, I’d black out and 10 to 15 minutes later, I’d come to my senses and the whole place would be upside down.
‘I’d sleep in my school uniform and go to school in dirty clothes and with holes in my shoes. My school dinner was all I’d eat for the day. All I had was a black bag with some clothes in.
Mr Brown was sleeping on the streets in his school uniform and living on just one school dinner a day at 13
‘Then my friend’s mum Yvonne took me in as one of her own. She’s an amazing woman. When we’d see people, she’d say I was her adopted son.
‘She always believed that I could achieve great things. She was the first person I called to tell her about my award and she was crying down the phone.’
Mr Brown is taking his ‘adoptive mum’ Yvonne Hylton as his guest at the Pride of Britain Awards as his way of saying thank you for taking him in off the streets and helping him ever since.
He stayed with Yvonne for around a year but flunked his GCSEs and left school at 15.
Having been back and forth to his mother’s house and the streets, he went to the neighbourhood post office and collapsed on his knees, begging for help.
He was placed in a ‘grotty B&B’ where he survived on cheap biscuits bought from borrowing ‘bus money’ from friends.
Mr Brown said: ‘I’d open up custard creams, lick the cream in the middle, then stick them back together and put them back in the packet.
‘I lost so much weight. I was just a child, fending for myself in an adult world.’
After a while, Mr Brown was moved into a flat in Hockley, Birmingham, put on income support and started college.
But he got in with the wrong crowd and was kicked out, leading him to a life of gangs.
Before he knew it, he was selling drugs and committing robberies.
Today Mr Brown is father to T’lias, eight, Iyana, five, and Lemari, eight months, and is an inspirational speaker who talks all over the UK and mentors young people
After a street robbery, Mr Brown was arrested and faced several years in prison but he was given a second chance by the judge after telling his story when filling out his pre-sentence report.
As a result, he was given a two year suspended sentence, community service and a fine.
He said: ‘That started to change my personality, it made me think about what I was doing wrong. I was going to end up living my life in prison, or dead.
‘People had tried stabbing me, I’d had guns to my head, someone had even tried to kidnap me. I knew the people around me weren’t good for me.’
This was Mr Brown’s lightbulb moment. The first thing he did was to buy a white top and blue jeans and walk out of the shop wearing them.
Mr Brown said: ‘I’d always wear black and I realised I looked intimidating and unapproachable.
‘Straight away, an old woman talked to me at the bus stop then she sat next to me on the bus. It was a small change but I could see the difference. I was smiling when I got back home.’
To try to improve his CV, he did courses on employability skills, customer services, first aid and parenting as, by this time, he had a son on the way.
He applied for around 500 jobs and had no replies but he didn’t give up.
He continued to get his maths, English and IT GCSE grades and went on a Prince’s Trust acting programme at Birmingham REP, determined to make the most of every opportunity that came his way.
Mr Brown said: ‘From there, things kept going up. I went to events, met celebrities, attended gala dinners and made contacts in places I never thought I would.
‘I went to a garden party at Buckingham Palace and met Prince Charles (for the first time).
‘It all gave me purpose and made me understand what I wanted to do in life – and that was to try to change young people’s lives.’
Today Mr Brown is father to T’lias, eight, Iyana, five, and Lemari, eight months, and is an inspirational speaker who talks all over the UK and mentors young people to deter them from joining gangs.
Mr Brown, who also works with the National Citizen Service helping young people with social integration, said: ‘It’s really busy and going really well.
‘There’s one young person who had experienced a lot of deaths among his family and friends and was going on a destructive path. I did a talk at his school and, when I met him, he was spiralling out of control.
‘Since then, he’s changed his life around and is doing really well. This is so nice to hear. It makes me realise what I’m doing is making a difference in helping young people change their lives.’