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   Secret Millionaire: My life-changing week in Salford
by Tom Rodgers
Additional reporting by Kate Emery Multi-millionaire hairdresser Lee Stafford came to Salford with one purpose - to find people he could help. As part of the popular Channel 4 show The Secret Millionaire, Lee spent a week in Charlestown, and his first impression was not good. "I’d never heard of Salford before I got there," he claims. And the now-famous scene in the program - where the pampered millionaire asks the taxi driver what the area is like - did not start Lee off on a confident footing. “The only place I knew in Manchester was Moss Side," says Lee. "The taxi driver said, 'It’s worse than Moss Side round here'. To me Moss Side is like The Bronx in New York so I just couldn’t believe it it could be worse than that.” “I come from the Harold Hill council estate in Essex, all my family is from there, so I know what it’s like. But when I got to Salford it felt like one big council estate, it just kept going and going." Salford has had a somewhat chequered relationship with The Secret Millionaire. In 2007 property developer Chek Whyte was sent to the city undercover, posing as a volunteer. He found social housing in a terrible state and promised to do something about it. But Mr Whyte later reneged on promises to build in the Langworthy area and later declared himself bankrupt. So it was a surprise to many to learn that Channel 4 had again chosen Salford as the site for their docu-drama programme. Lee had an easier time in Salford because he wasn’t strictly undercover. The programme-makers were cleverer this time, instead setting up the premise that Lee was starring in a documentary about celebrity called “Life Without Fame”. “I went in as Lee Stafford, and everyone knows the Secret Millionaires go in undercover so no-one even twigged that it might be that.” When we spoke to Lee he was jet-setting around the world, but we managed to catch him in a hotel room in Zambia, of all places. But despite the showbiz lifestyle it seemed that Lee's family relationships were on the rocks. He wasn't close to his mum, who's dealing with cancer, whilst she also cares for his brother who suffered a brain injury ten years ago. “I’ve always been a big fan of the show,” he said. “I’m always crying my eyes out by the end of it.” "It really was a life-changing experience," he said. "I found out that carers are the unsung heroes in this country." He volunteered at BASIC - the Brain and Spinal Injury Centre on Eccles New Road, and it appears to have changed his life for the better. "I was guilty of crossing the road when someone got hideous news." "Through being a volunteer I learnt what to say, finally, and I can’t ask for more than that." And what is that? What do you say? "Well," he pauses, "the first thing to do is to approach them, make the first contact, that’s the most important thing. And the second thing is just to listen." “Don’t be afraid of silence. If you don’t know what to say, tell people you don’t know what to say. The most important thing is just to empathise. Be honest, and be there for people." Through his experiences at BASIC Lee was so impressed that he decided to become a patron of the charity. Another eye-opener for the multi-millionaire was the huge lack of funding charities have to face every day. "I thought that if you had a nice wesbite and a few glossy magazines to bandy about you were well-funded, he says. "But the ones I visited weren't well funded. In fact they were struggling to survive." A £20,000 gift to the centre was followed by a £25,000 donation to CALL - the cancer support service. "You’ve got to think about the effect it would have if these charities weren’t there. Hundreds, thousands of lives would get instantly worse," said Lee. "Can you imagine having cancer and having to get a bus to get to your chemo[theraphy] treatments? It would be a nightmare. My mum had chemo and she really suffered with it, the treatments can leave you in an awful state, sick and weak." His experiences changed him to such an extent that following the summer filming, he brought his mum, his girlfriend, his brother and even his dog back up north from Soho to meet the two charities. We spoke to Carol at BASIC who told us about the "overwhelming" experience. "I'm a massive fan of Secret Millionaire. I'm always bawling by the end of it," she said. "When Lee first came, I wasn't particularly impressed that he was a celebrity. I'd never heard of him. But he was a genuinely lovely guy who seemed so interested in what we do, an absolute charmer." "We deal every day with people who are perhaps driving down the motorway and the next minute they're in hospital with a brain injury. When people come to the centre they maybe haven't come to terms with the fact that they've got a disability, but you see the progress they make happening right in front of you and it's incredible. "We get so many lovely letters with people saying 'I don't know where I'd be without BASIC', it just makes your job so worthwhile. "But we have to get funding anywhere we can, car boot sales, charity balls, sponsored runs, and we're always coming up with schemes to keep us going." "So when he handed over that cheque it was an utter shock. A lovely shock!" Another recipient of Lee's good fortune was 87-year old entertainer Ted Selby. Ted is a force of nature who has spent the last ten years gigging in old people's homes - compiling a massive 880 gigs in total - to raise £34,000 for Bury Hospice. Ted's son Mitchell told us that "he’s always been an entertainer. He walked up to a piano when he was seven years old and just started playing it.” “He charges fifty pounds a show, and besides five pounds petrol, everything goes to Bury Hospice.” "Ted inspired me. No doubt about it," said Lee. "He wanted to reach £50,000 so I decided to help him out." Ted told SalfordOnline that he was "nearly crying" when Lee handed him a cheque for £16,000. “I said I’d like to get to fifty thousand but I can’t see myself doing it as I had an upcoming lung operation." Ted is currently recovering from a recent lung operation and is recently home from the hospital. Due to this he isn’t taking bookings for gigs until he recovers fully. Salford was good for Lee, and vice-versa. He finished by saying that he hoped the visit had changed him forever. "It really was a life-changing experience. I hope I’m going to take this experience with me throughout the rest of my life." Image: Lee in his Soho salon Kate Emery is a Salford University Journalism student doing work experience at SalfordOnline.com Due to problems with spam only SalfordOnline members can now leave comments. Becoming a member of SalfordOnline only takes a minute, just hit the red Join Us button at the top right hand side of the page to create your Personal account. Got a news story? Need help with publicity for an event in Salford? Send it to newsdesk@salfordonline.com or call the SalfordOnline newsdesk on 0161 789 5377. |
