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Happy Place

25 Jun 2025 · 28m

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No one would hire me - so I built my own business! Brandon Hulcoop on lifting barriers for blind people

In short

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  • Host: Fearne Cotton
  • Description: Fearne Cotton engages in heartfelt discussions with various individuals about life, love, loss, and the concept of happiness.
  • Guest: Brandon Hulcoop, a 23-year-old entrepreneur and regional winner of the Enterprise category at the 2025 King's Trust Awards.

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0:00Hello and welcome to Happy Place with me Fern Cotton. Today a chat that's going to warm your heart with happiness and hopefully fire you up with inspiration too. I'm talking to an incredibly impressive young man. His name is Brandon. I got an email the day after saying yeah you came across really well in your interview thank you for your application however we don't feel that you could work effectively with Excel data management and databases and considering that they had asked me the day before they'd actually said how would you use various applications and how did your software work and can you work with images and I said yes and gave detailed answers as to how I would do that They then came and said, well, because you have visual impairment, we don't feel that you could do it.

0:39And it was so frustrating for me that because I thought, well, yeah, I can do it. Brandon is 23. He's from Plymouth and he's one of the 2025 winners of a regional enterprise award from the King's Trust. Oh, I loved meeting Brandon so bloody much. He is such a bundle of brilliant, fun energy. But he's been through periods of feeling pretty despondent and discouraged for quite some time. He was unemployed and had applied for over a thousand jobs without any success before he joined the King's Trust Enterprise programme. He always struggled to get past the interview stage, either due to a lack of experience or due to his visual impairment.

1:22He's been blind since birth. Now, though, Brandon's the proud owner of All Things Dottie, which makes accessible products for visually impaired people, their families and businesses. Everything from braille menus to greeting cards, colouring books and artwork. Now look, the King's Trust is such an amazing charity. I'm a goodwill ambassador for mental health and well-being for them and I love my role. They help support young people aged 16 to 30 and believe that every single young person should have the chance to succeed no matter their background or their personal challenges. They offer support into education, training and jobs and that's exactly what they did for Brandon.

2:04It was such a privilege to get to have this chat with Brandon. And I'll suggest that you stick around till the end because there is a brilliant surprising store where I basically had to hold back a hell of a lot of tears. If you're wearing mascara, I hope it's waterproof. The market's uncertain. Revenue's tied and hiring on hold. That's why results driven companies are using Upwork to keep work moving. Go to Upwork.com today and start hiring proven freelance talent fast. No bulky overhead. No rigid long-term contracts. Just the right expert right when you need them. Work smarter and faster with Upwork.

2:44Go to Upwork.com now and find your freelance expert. That's U-P-W-O-R-K.com. Post a job for free and get started today. Hi, this is Knox from the Popcast with Knox and Jamie. And maybe like us at the Popcast, you also know people who have been smokers or vapors. And Zen is the one product it seems like everyone is talking about. Because there are many good reasons to make a change to Zen nicotine pouches. Reasons like Zen nicotine pouches are still America's number one choice for smoke-free, hands-free nicotine satisfaction. And you can choose between 10 varieties, each variety available in either 3 or 6 milligrams.

3:18Check out zen.com slash find to find Zen at a store near you. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. There's a part of me that everyone sees. I'm Howie Mandel, the comedian. Apparently, I know what funny is. Funny bought me a house, but I also know what isn't funny. OCD. I've lived with OCD my entire life, and people throw the term around like it's no big deal. But OCD is severe, often debilitating. It's a mental health condition that involves unrelented, unwanted thoughts that can make you question your character, your beliefs, even your safety. General therapy can help with some things, but for OCD, it can actually make things worse.

4:01That's why I want to tell you about NoCD. NoCD is the world's largest treatment provider for OCD and is covered by insurance for over 155 million Americans. Their licensed therapists specialize in ERP, the most effective treatment for OCD. If you think you might be struggling with OCD, go to NOCD.com to book a free 15-minute call. They are here to help.

5:01Right, here we go. This is the show.

5:24Brandon, welcome to Happy Place. I'm so, so glad to meet you. I'm glad to meet you. Thank you for the opportunity. I've been looking forward to this ever since I was invited. I just want to get to know you more and what you've been up to more. I want to hear about your business. But before we get on to that, I'd love to know about your life before the King's Trust and how you were coping. Because I know that you applied for hundreds and hundreds of jobs and were rejected every time. And I'm imagining that was a pretty tricky soul destroying era of your life. Soul destroying is actually a really apt way of putting it.

6:02I don't actually know how long I was unemployed for. People ask me, can you actually work it out? And I try and work it out. And then I realized I actually know that's wrong. And yeah, I applied for hundreds of jobs. I think if you looked at all my applications on LinkedIn, Indeed, JobSwipe, all of them, CV library you'd be up to at least a thousand but I don't know for definite I think it's going to be up that way somewhere so yeah so I was quite fortunate in that when I left the college I went to the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford but when I left I went into what they call a kickstart vacancy and that is as it sounds to help kickstart your career with a company called Skilltech Training.

6:48The contract was only six months. So I left there, joined another organisation, which I left after a short time. And then I think that's when the job hunt started. Yeah. And it was hard. I bet it was. I mean, it seems like there's just not much support for visually impaired people in the workplace. That's what it felt like. So one interview I went to, I remember very vividly, it was online. um my mum was uh in the next room and afterwards she said you did really well you know it sounded good you could have said this this and this I thought well this is good because this is what I need sort of feedback I need and I got any more the day after saying yeah you came across really well in your interview thank you for your application however we don't feel that you could work with uh effectively with excel and data management and databases and considering that they had asked me the day before they'd actually said how would you use various applications and how did your software work and can you work with images and I said yes and gave detailed answers as to how I would do that they then came and said well because you have visual impairment we don't feel that you could do it and it was so frustrating for me that because I thought yeah I can do it yeah I can't even imagine I have the qualifications the skills maybe not the experience back then but I always thought you can if you can't take me on how am I going to get the experience because that was another thing experience.

8:10Yeah, yeah, exactly. And also just really hard for you to have to keep picking yourself up and then trying again and reaching out to people. That's really, really hard. It was. Yeah, it was. But luckily I've got a really good family. So yeah, they pulled me out of it. Good, I'm so glad. What made you initially reach out to the King's Trust? It's quite funny actually because I was in the job centre working with my work coach and we we decided to meet so that she could help me with an application for the civil service which as it happened got me a job and i was there for nearly two years but that's a different story so we uh work on the application and i was just thinking i thought i said to her half joking i said all i need is one piece of equipment and i could set up my own business so she's tapping away at a computer and then she says give it half an hour and you'll have a call from the king from the Prince's Trust as it was then, now the King's Trust, you'll have a call and they'll get you on the Enterprise program and they'll get you set up your own business.

9:12And that's how it happened. So they rang me and said, what would you like to do? So I said, well, I've had this idea for a while, all things dotty, transcription service providing mainly Braille menus. And at the time it was primarily greetings cards. But I said I wanted to expand into all sorts of different avenues like Braille menus. And they said, yep, fine, we can get you on the Enterprise course. next one's in whenever it was March or something I think it was and that was that you know I haven't looked back since. I mean how incredible what what was that experience like taking part in the enterprise program you know what did you learn what did you take from it what was the sort of value in it for you?

9:50I was really lucky because a member of the King's Trust team in Plymouth modified the course materials for me so that I could read them use them independently so for me for the first time I was taking part in a course that I knew could change my life without any barriers yeah just just as a sighted person would and for me that's it gave me a sense of freedom a real sense of freedom and I asked questions and asked for clarifications and they went through it and they went through at good speed so we you know I learned how to do a business plan a really good business plan I learned how to work with the financial aspect of running a business and not panic about it which is it's always helpful because that can be a bit of an nightmare yeah yeah and I learned what support was out there um for people like myself as well so it was a really really good course to go on um I thoroughly recommend it for anybody who has an idea disabled or otherwise just give it just give it a shot yeah without a doubt tell us about your mentor as well so Mike my mentor is called Mike he's absolutely fantastic um we met a few weeks after the enterprise course I really I'd really quickly done a business plan I'd done a level three business qualification so I already had a template for a business plan on my on my system and funnily enough I already had the some of the data filled in so I edited that double checked it and sent it off so I met Mike pretty quickly after the enterprise course and he'd done his research he knew how to greet me how to explain and describe things what to say you know i see my vision impairment as a bit of a joke i won't lie to you i always i always make jokes about it which people don't appreciate um but that's the best way to go isn't it you know but mike mike just takes that and joins in yeah so we've now become really good friends as well as mentor and mentee that's so great we do all sorts together we've been to london a few times we've been to comic-con we've been to i actually sat in a dalek yes i love it actually i actually sat in a dalek went exterminate and it's all because mike actually went up to him and said he's a big fan can he can he can he can have a go yeah brilliant it's absolutely brilliant so oh yeah we we've done all sorts and the business now he he's fully fully involved in the business he helped me find my first premises um hi yeah big shout out to mike because this wouldn't be possible without you yeah big shout out to mike i mean what you've achieved is incredible in a short space of time when did that idea for your business first land because you know i i understand there are many frustrations for you as a visually impaired person where you want that independence and it's not there but to have an idea that is going to support so many people but it's so creative at the same time where did that come from a few different things really so I well I quite quite often go out for meals with my family and everywhere we go we always say do you have a braille menu because ordering from a braille menu for me is like ordering from a print menu for a sighted person you know you can order decide what you want by yourself you can have a conversation at table while you're you're working out what you want the only place that ever said yes was a pizza hut and it was actually the waitress that came over to us and said would you like a braille menu so of course we said yes please and that felt so good because it was the first time i'd been able to order my own food without mum saying oh brandon what do you fancy uh there's there's omelets there's uh meat dishes there's mixed grills you know i can actually read through and figure out what i'm doing for myself and that's it's liberating it's independence yeah and that's what all things dotty is all about yeah so there was that side of things but obviously after that we've always asked do you have a braille menu and they've all said no small restaurants and big chains have all said no yeah the other idea was that i couldn't read my own birthday cards so i'd always get a lot of birthday and christmas cards but could never read them so obviously people would read them out to me but then after that i couldn't read them for myself that's when it started really the idea landed in lockdown yeah i experimented and quite frankly they were awful um why what went wrong what happened because i didn't know how to downscale the images i didn't have the right equipment i'd been working on different pieces of artwork for years putting them together uh on what they call the perkins which is a braille typewriter so doing it all by hand i absolutely loved it but if you can imagine a christmas tree um you've got one half of the christmas tree on one side of the page right and the other side of the christmas tree on the other side of the page and it was a big like document yeah just in between sort of a4 and a3 okay it was it was awful it's a big it's a big christmas card yeah and mum said well not everybody wants to buy a christmas card that big and i said i don't know how i'm gonna downsize it that's brilliant so obviously after experimenting i just thought now i'm gonna close it you know but then the king's trust came along and brought it all to life and mike's had all these wonderful ideas and uh helped me find images for the front covers and then at the time i was still doing the inserts on the perkins um but we were doing it all together and we experimented together and he knew how to downsize the pictures and now obviously it's a completely different ball game so we've got a printed cover on the outside and on the inside is a tactile version of the front cover oh that's completely compact just like a normal card yeah that's great menus and cards is where it all started i think that's incredible i mean at first obviously you were doing all of this work with the enterprise course and working out your business plan alongside your actual job but now you're full-time all things dotty yeah at the time I think I was working part-time for the RNIB so my my unemployment was broken up by a contract with the RNIB I think it was only like a three or four month contract which yeah was extended but it was only part-time so I still had a lot of time for job search so I did the enterprise course in amongst that then in April I started up the business and then in the July I started at the job center which was my full-time job so for quite a while i was running my business in the evenings and working full time during the day as well yeah that's full so it was full on and i had no time to myself no time to do anything for myself but all i could think of was the end result you know i can leave the job center which i have now done thank goodness we're all celebrating

16:26and yeah it's all things dotty we've got our own premises uh i'm in the office every day and i'm loving every minute of it god i bet you are i mean to have brought the idea to life for it to be a thriving business but you see it wouldn't have happened without the king's trust yeah if i hadn't spoken to the king's trust if they hadn't said oh yeah we'll modify the materials if i hadn't met mike none of it would have happened i maybe would have tried but without the equipment the resources the grants the help it wouldn't have got anywhere If you're a smoker or vapor ready to make a change, you really only need one good reason.

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17:51expert. That's U-P-W-O-R-K dot com. Post a job for free and get started today. There's the part of me that everyone sees. I'm Howie Mandel, the comedian. Apparently, I know what funny is. Funny bought me a house, but I also know what isn't funny. OCD. I've lived with OCD my entire life, and people throw the term around like it's no big deal. But OCD is severe, often debilitating. It's a mental health condition that involves unrelented, unwanted thoughts that can make you question your character, your beliefs, even your safety. General therapy can help with some things, but for OCD, it can actually make things worse.

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19:25I mean, what are your plans for it now? I'm sure you just want to keep growing it bigger and bolder and brighter. Absolutely, yes. So we want to get more visually impaired people sort of in on it. Yeah. We need to raise awareness. We need to get as many visually impaired people looking at all things dotty as possible. Yeah. because we don't we don't you know we do braille large print and audio we can transcribe any document you want into any format it's incredible um so we need more people really to say yeah okay uh i could do with this please can you can you come and have a look at it so we want the individuals to come and you know have a look at the cards have a look at the books yeah you know we can do all sorts of things we do coloring books as well yeah um but mainly we want to get into restaurant chains so really you need big restaurants to to take notice of of this and to get in touch and to get braille menus yeah exactly so a braille menu is is um is a must really because it i always say to people put yourself in a visually impaired person's shoes if there's any restaurant chain owners listening out there think of this you lose your sight you love your food you walk into a restaurant you're going to meet a friend there and they say have you got a braille menu and they say no how does that make you feel because now you're allowing on them to read the menu out to you yeah or even if you went into a restaurant and they said sorry we don't do print menus you only do braille how would that make you feel yeah it's a complete reversal but just think about it for a minute so all we need is for them to come in have a look at what we do i have actually set up a petition at the moment as well to try and make it a legal requirement for restaurant chains to look at getting a braille menu yeah because it's in the equality act it's in the equality and human rights commission it's it's human right yeah Yeah, absolutely.

21:06Not just menus, but for signage, you know, road signs, shop signs, toilet signs, hotel signs, hotel welcome packs, things like that. All sorts of things. So everyone needs to go and check out your website. Yeah, absolutely. So tell us the website. So we've got that in audio form. The website, the company is called All Things Dottie and the website is allthings.dottiebraille.co.uk. Well, everyone needs to go and check it out and see the brilliant work you're doing. Thank you very much. I have got a little story, if you wouldn't mind me. This is what this space is for. We're here for the storytelling.

21:42So when I won the England King's Trust Enterprise Award, I was invited to Manchester for the ceremony. By the way, congrats on that. Thank you very much. It's amazing. Thanks. It was brilliant. I bet. How did you feel when you found that news out? Mind blown. my brain just went whoa it's absolutely incredible absolutely incredible and i felt so proud of myself and so grateful to the king's trust and to mike as well i was just like i was buzzing for weeks and then of course after the ceremony as well i was just oh it's just a little wild i love it yeah so we're in manchester i'm in a travel lodge and as you can as you can probably imagine there's signage and there's welcome packs and I can't see any of it.

22:35Yeah. I always leave the shower door open just so that I can, well, the bathroom door open just so that I can hear what's going on around me. And I come out and the alarms go off. So the fire alarm's going off across the whole hotel. Oh no. Everyone's evacuated. People having their breakfast. People out of their rooms. All out in the car park. And I've got people knocking on my door. Oh, what's going on? What's going on? so of course they just got the hotel manager who was not impressed and then mike comes in he says right he says brandon just just stay out the way just stay on your bed you've got people coming in your room to try and sort things out so what's going on and he said well he said you weren't to see the sign that says please keep the door closed and you know to prevent steam setting the fire alarm oh no so you caused a fair amount of drama yeah i did really i had all sorts of people knocking on my door of course you know well i hope that you've um alerted that hotel for the for the need for braille on that sign we did yes i mean they learned that lesson the hard way yeah they really did i mean they haven't contacted us asking for any braille signage okay they need to but let's put that out there right now yeah that's what they need to do so it was you know anything can go wrong can't it if you can't if you can't read the signs or the the books or the menus or any of it something can very easily go wrong well also you were leaving the door open because that's what you need so you can hear what's going on around you yeah and I'm in my own private space I'm in my own private bedroom so yeah you know well let's hope they get in touch pretty soon they need to go and check out your website it's so brilliant you know you getting not only this sense of pride like you were saying the regional awards for the enterprise award at the king's trust you know that is a brilliant moment for you to stop and really think about how much you've achieved and absolutely how you're changing things for so many other people out there and also I guess boosting your confidence in terms of where you could take it and what you can do next yeah it was um it was it was a shock to be fair because I went for the awards ceremony and I had people from all over the place telling me how wonderful it is and how much of a good job and how you know how well I'm doing and I'm thinking I never realized how much of a difference I am actually making into people's lives I just get on and do it because I enjoy it and because I know that one day I am going to make a difference and I always think if I make a difference to one person's life I've achieved something yeah without a doubt I mean you're changing a lot of people's lives which is amazing I like to think so you are Brandon and that's not where it ends because you are also the winner of the King's Trust National Enterprise Award

25:20how do you feel about that oh my god

25:29this is this is absolutely incredible oh my god what's going through your mind oh

25:44the suspense was killing me and I kept sitting to work I said I wonder I said what's going on you know oh we should know in the next few weeks I'm just like yeah hopefully and I'm just thinking I have I won it because there's a lot of other worthy winners and I'd like to congratulate everybody else oh that's lovely that was nominated I'd like to congratulate the the other regional winners because your stories are incredible and you've all done an incredible job. So as a result, up against such worthy opponents, I never thought I would be in with a chance. But I've... Oh my God. Yay! It's so brilliant.

26:20This is absolutely incredible. This is the proudest moment for me, for all things Dottie, for all of us. And oh my goodness me. Oh, well, you're unbelievably deserving of the National Award. I'm so lucky that I was the one that got to deliver the news. I feel completely honoured. and it's just so impressive what you're doing. It's so wonderful. And I mean, you're going to go and have to get on stage again to get another award. Wow. Just wow. Have you got a smart suit? Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get the suit out. This is like a suit day. Obviously, yeah, of course it is. It's like a big time suit moment.

26:56Of course it is. Yeah. Actually, I got a nice Ted Baker one from Suits Direct. So there you go. Got the suit ready. Yeah, suit ready. Yeah. Oh my goodness. I mean, I'm imagining there's a pretty strong chance that you might get to be pretty close to the king at some point. I'd like to think so. Yeah. Yeah, I'd like to think so. I mean, that would be incredible. I've had correspondence with the king. Have you? Yeah. In what form? Tell me. I, um, my phone might still go in a million miles an hour, sorry. It's like I need to give you more time to process this huge news. When Mike told me, I'd won, because obviously he rang me, he said, are you free for a course?

27:34I was like, yeah, what's up? Everything okay? So he rang me. I'm spreading good on my bed. And he rang me. He said, I've got news. I said, well, go on then. Spill the beans here. And he's laughing. I said, well, he can't get the words out because he's laughing. And he says, well, he says, you know, I've nominated you for this award. I was like, yeah. He said, well, he said, you may or may not have won it. I was just like, what? Oh, my God. Absolutely incredible. He said, yeah, you've won the regionals for England. And I just, I fell right off the bed. oh my god and then I got in mum going down says Brandon what's up ran down the stairs oh I've won oh it was yeah so this is like a million times what's your mum gonna say oh my mum oh what's she gonna say she's gonna freak out I'm hoping my mum can come yeah to the ceremony wouldn't that be great it would because I mean she couldn't come to the last one because she was working but it would be great if my mum and dad could both come yeah if you get to meet the king what are you gonna say I'll just say thanks for the opportunity thanks thanks for setting up the trust and ultimately thank you for changing my life and as i say i've had correspondence with him i sent him um a tactile portrait of his majesty and queen camilla oh wow another one of prince william um and princess kate and um i said i just wanted to thank you for setting up the king's the king's trust um thank you for everything you've done this is the business this is who we are and as a thank you i just want to provide you with this this tactile artwork featuring your majesty um and he wrote back i got a letter back from the palace saying thank you very much for your thoughtful gift uh i've actually got it framed in my framed in my office and yeah too right uh thank you very much for your thoughtful gift um it's a really nice thing for the king to receive and we wish you the best of luck uh in the future and we we're glad the king's trust has helped you out so much you know oh my mom texted me and said brandon you've got mail with like a laughing face so of course i was at work at the job center and i couldn't obviously can't see the photo that she attached i put it i put it through my speech software i said what is this and it just told me it's an envelope with a stamp and i was just like well that's not helpful and i'm thinking why would mum tell me that i've just got normal mail so i went around um to somebody i was very friendly with the job center and i said what is this what is this photo and she's like, oh my God, she says, that's got the Buckingham Palace seal on it.

30:00Oh, the most exciting envelope ever. Yeah, it was. So of course then I'm itching to get home. I'm just like, well, come on, five o 'clock needs to come and hurry up so I can go home and have a look. But yeah, oh my goodness. Brandon, I'm so unbelievably chuffed for you. What a day, what a moment. There's more excitement to come with the ceremony itself. And as I said, you are such a deserving winner. Now, when anyone comes onto the Happy Place podcast, I always finish with this question and I'd love to put this to you. Where is your happy place? My happy place is on the Plymouth Barbican, walking by the seafront, maybe my local boathouse restaurant with my family and friends and pooches.

30:43Oh, I love that answer. Being by the sea is the best. It is. The best, the best. We're really lucky. We live so close to it. A lot of our customers live that way as well. big shout out to moments cafe in the lisbon bakery and of course the boathouse and oliver and twist all you guys so close to the barbican it means we can just come and pop along and have a little walk along the seafront as well i reckon you'll probably be getting a few free meals out of that one as well actually brandon so no bad thing to shout out who knows no i just yeah our customers are so close to the barbican it's literally a case of oh oh we're in town should we just go along on the barbican you know i love it mike loves the barbican as much as i do so you know and of course my grandma as well i quite often every couple of weeks go for breakfast at my local cafe or if the weather's nice we go for lunch and the boat house we share the same birthday so the boat house is our birthday treat every year oh it's gorgeous we both love the barbican as well so yeah that's definitely my happy place oh i love it well look i'm really crying over here i'm i'm so over the moon for you and i just hope you have the best time at the ceremony and thank you so much for being on happy place thank you very much for inviting me thank Thank you for the wonderful news.

31:50Thank you for everything. And thank you to the King's Trust as well. Yay! Go on, Brandon. Oh, we love you, Brandon. Did you not cry? I was, I could have lost my shit so bad. I was trying to hold back the tears. The Happy Place team cried. We all hugged a lot after. What a deserving winner of that award and an incredible example of what determination, belief in yourself and support from the right people can do. if you'd like to support the work of the King's Trust know someone who might be in need of their support or you're interested in finding out more about any of the free courses they have on offer do visit their website kingstrust.org.uk are you following us on Instagram?

32:33I do hope so we're over at Happy Place Official and that's the place to share your own stories and be inspired by others too thank you so much again to Brandon to the producer Anushka Tate at Happy Place Studios and to you, you're simply the best

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From the publisher

23 year old Brandon is the regional winner of the Enterprise category at the 2025 King's Trust Awards. In this chat with Fearne, Brandon explains how, before starting his braille business with the help of The Trust, he had applied for over a thousand jobs without any success. He always struggled to get past the interview stage either due to a lack of experience or due to his visual impairment.

 

Fearne and Brandon explore misconceptions about his visual impairment, the importance of supportive mentorship, and why starting a business has to come with some hilarious trial and error!

 

Plus, Brandon tells the story of how not being able to access shower instructions led to him setting a hotel fire alarm off, proving just how vital it is that public spaces are accessible for everyone.

 

...and stick around to the end of the episode because there’s a big surprise in store for Brandon!

 

All Things Dotty makes accessible products for visually impaired people, their families, and businesses – everything from braille menus and greetings cards, to colouring books and art work. You can visit the website here!


Find out more about The King’s Trust.

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