New career for former Big Brother housemate
YOU might remember Lee Davey. Back in 2002, he spent his summer on our TV screens, surrounded by cameras in the Big Brother house.
Lee, then 22, spent three weeks in the house before being evicted; and afterwards, this being only the third year of Big Brother, a pre-Cowell world in which reality television was firmly on the ascent, housemates were surrounded by a media circus.
Fast forward eight years and Lee, now 30, has graduated with a degree from the University of Northampton, which will help him realise his long-term ambition of becoming a PE teacher.
Before he entered the Big Brother house (whose most famous face that year was Jade Goody) he was a fitness instructor and personal trainer, a job he returned to after the Big Brother experience.
"As soon as they come out of the house there were all these housemates saying they wanted to be a TV presenter or wanted to be an actor. I just didn't. I accepted my future.
"At the end of the day I was a fitness instructor, I wasn't going to go on TV talking about things I didn't know about, and I think I was one of the first ones to go back to work.
"With the money we earnt we didn't need to go back to work, but I went back to work because I need to keep my feet on the ground."
Fast forward again to another summer, this time 2007. It's a blazing hot Sunday in July and Lee, from Leicester, has dropped his son Max off at his mother's.
He's about to start a late shift at the gym. It's boiling and he is fed up. Who, he asks himself, goes to the gym between 2pm and 10pm on a Sunday in July?
As he drives into work he wonders what he is doing. He's been working in gyms for the best part of a decade; what is there left to do in this industry?
"I had got to the point where teaching people fitness had run its course and teaching people how to use gym equipment had run its course.
I wanted to go into teaching, identifying talent, trying to help their progress and developing kids' sport.
"When I was younger I wanted to be a PE teacher but I never liked the thought of going to university.
"It wasn't my thing, I wasn't academic, but times change and it was the only way of moving on and getting a good job. I got to work on that Sunday but I decided to look into it so I went on the Ucas website, got the information I needed and the next day I applied."
The next step was to identify which university to attend. Lee shortlisted Coventry and Northampton and arranged to attend an open day.
As soon as he set foot on campus in Northampton he knew which institution to pick and within weeks of that sunny summer Sunday, was enrolled on a degree in sports and exercise science.
"I was 27 when I went back and I had my head screwed on. I knew I was doing it for a good reason. I knew where I wanted to be career-wise.
"It was difficult because I ran a business on the side, I'm a single parent, I've had to work to pay the bills. I wasn't an 18-year-old, I had a lot of responsibilities.
"I hadn't just come from A-Levels, I hadn't done anything academic for 10 years.
"People were talking about referencing and I didn't know what that was. The only thing I knew was a bit of anatomy and physiology. But even within the first few months I could see the opportunities from being there and having a degree, which really spurred me on."
Lee graduated last month and was accepted on a PGCE course but three years of university have burnt a hole in his pocket, so he intends to work and take it in 2011/12.
"A friend of mine's a PE teacher and before I had my interview I went to observe for a day. The class was told to warm up and run round the rugby pitch and half of them stopped and walked.
"We used to sprint round three or four times. I've seen the difference massively, I looked at that and thought 'wow, that's unbelievably lazy.'"
Lee says he knows teaching will be tough and involve a lot of hard work, but it remains what he wants to do. How does he think the pupils will find having a former housemate for a teacher?
"It's something I have thought about and I'm going to have to wait and see. I'd hope that when I'm trying to apply for jobs at schools they will be fair-minded and give me a chance.
"People have got to understand that was in 2002, I was 21, 22, what's happened for those three weeks has gone. I didn't come out badly, I came out fine.
"Long-term I want to teach in the States and there no one will know who I am."
A University of Northampton spokesman said the institution was very proud of Lee and wished him all the best for the future.
And how does university compare to Big Brother?
"Going to university was the best thing I've ever done."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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