INTERVIEW: JOHN DENNEN
MY official name is Bilal Fawaz. But when I came to Britain I told people to call me Kelvin because they couldn’t pronounce my name and Kelvin stuck with me.
My childhood was the worst ever. Growing up in Nigeria, I was beaten mercilessly. Because I don’t look Nigerian. I am mixed race, I have a Lebanese father and a mum from Benin. So when they looked at me, they saw me as an outcast. I was transported to Britain, at 15 years of age, where I was a servant in someone’s house. There I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t go out. I was washing the clothes, cleaning the house, doing everything for them. So all of a sudden I saw this and said this is not meant for me. I’m going to go out and make something of myself and ran out of the house. Eventually I was put into social care where I stayed until I was 18.