Foods shared during Easter in Davi’s family and birthday keepsakes

My partner, Ash, was very surprised by how close my sister and I are.

Me, my mum and my sister are like best friends. Of course we have my dad as well, but it’s mainly us three who are really close. And I’m glad that my daughter has such a strong and tight-knit family around her.

Because Ash is white British, it was interesting in terms of my family, and his family. It was quite new, especially for his grandparents and my dad, who are the older generations. There’s an inbuilt culture in everyone, I think. But we all get along very well now, they just needed some time to get used to it.

Ash and I have got a mixed-race daughter and for a long while she only looked like him. It really annoys me because I carried her for nine months and so I wanted to see the efforts that I put in. But she's lovely, she’s the best of both of us.

Davi’s pair of trainers, and cheese

As a child, I lived in Winson Green, which is not far from the city centre and we lived literally right next door to the prison. Every time I told my friends about this, they were shocked.

I was a proper ‘homebody’ in my teenage years. But there was a park nearby too - a very tiny park, but it gave me a chance to disconnect from normal life, to be somewhere else. It’s why I liked going alone. When I was a bit older, I walked a lot in Lickey Hills which is a massive woodland area, or Edgbaston Reservoir which was always an inspiration for my poems when I was a teen.

During lockdown I found Harborne Walkway - it’s literally like a long green tunnel. I'd never heard of it before, but it was amazing.

It sounds cheesy, but I think I've had such great walks, such great experiences, just putting on a pair of trainers, being able to just enjoy being in Birmingham. And my daughter and I go for walks a lot - that’s the perfect way to spend time together.

The eardrops and cotton buds that Davi bought from Tesco the day she met her future husband

There was a big Tesco by my parents’ house where I would go a lot. And I would see this man working there. One day in 2015 he came up and asked me for my number. We’re engaged now.

When we started going out, I was thinking about going to America. So, I think he's probably glad I went to do my Master's in Sheffield instead because he’d come up every other weekend. That year, I had my first Christmas away from home, but he came up and we had dinner before I went to work - it was a very lovely gesture.

We’ve had a few moments that have tested our relationship: making it work long distance, moving in together two months before COVID and then… a child. A child would beat any challenge!!! It comes with sleep deprivation that makes a drastic difference on your personality and it was hard to make time for each other, but we’ve always got through it. We enjoy being parents and we do make a good team.

Davi’s landyard, notebook, fundraising certificate

I love working with young people. My job at Birmingham University is Diversity Project Officer where I work with underrepresented students to ensure they have access to careers and I ensure my colleagues understand what barriers students are facing.

In June I always run a week-long work experience programme called the Impact Challenge. It helps Birmingham Scholars, disabled students and students from ethnic minorities to gain the first experience of working with employers. It's my highlight of the year because I’m the lead organiser and deliverer.

Past June I continue to work with my colleagues to find them employers. I ask employers to create a project that they can give to students and go through student applications for. This year we had about 116 applications for 60 places.

I do all the bookings, from rooms to catering. It's very intense work but getting positive feedback both from the employers and students is always worth it.

Ice pack, shoulder support, poetry and literature books, notebook and stationary

When I was in school, I initially wanted to be a physiotherapist.

I did a summer school at the University of Birmingham when I was in year ten and I loved it. I learned about different health care roles and that's where I became interested in being a physio.

But when I got my A levels, I had a C in Biology, a C in Psychology, and then an A in English, and I thought maybe it's best to do what I'm good at. I went to Staffordshire to do English Literature and Creative Writing.

And that's why I tend to tell the young people that I work with: ‘do something that you actually enjoy and that you're good at’. Because if you pick a course just because of a job, but you're not good at it and you don't enjoy it, there's not really any point. I thought physio would be a cool career, but I actually love reading and writing poetry.

Sometimes life leads you to where you belong.

Anime merchandise in honour of Davi’s university obsession

My sister is ten years older, so I followed her footsteps as I was growing up.

When I got to the University of Staffordshire, I was going to stay at home and just commute, but my sister said “You need to leave. You need to meet other people and move away for a little bit”.

I did what she told me. At first, I was so sad, I cried so much, although it was only 50 minutes away on the train, for me it felt like ages away. In the end I was glad for it and I had a great time moving out. I enjoyed my course a lot and I made really close friends. I naturally just got into uni life which helped me overcome homesickness and anxiety, I just needed to give it time.

Because I was doing English everyone was asking whether I wanted to be a teacher. I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll be a teacher’. But my sister said, “Why don’t you try to see what it’s like before you sign up to it?” She was right again!

A copy of Jane Eyre plus her daughter’s favourite books and stuffed toy

I've always enjoyed reading and discussing literature. When I was a teenager, my favourite genre was young adult fiction.

When I went to Uni it was different because it wasn’t just reading for fun anymore. I did enjoy Edgar Allan Poe and absolutely loved Jane Eyre - but after graduating I felt like I didn’t want to read another book ever again!

In 2023 I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis which affects the vision in my eye. Reading became really hard, but I’m trying to get back into it. I've bought a tablet that should make reading with my vision easier.

My daughter is three and she loves reading. We’ve read some of her favourite books so many times that she can kind of trick you that she can read too. She can't - but she knows it so well that she can just say it.

Ingredients for cornmeal porridge

My mum’s town was Kingston, Jamaica. My parents met there, but moved here in 1990 before they moved over to Birmingham and had me here in 1994.

I went to Jamaica twice as a child. I would really like to go back to revisit my family as a grown up, but it's obviously a long and expensive flight and it’s very, very hot there.

I’m not ‘that Jamaican’, I like to say. Eating Jamaican food was a real challenge for me growing up, because I didn’t like it and because I grew up ‘quite British.’ I enjoy Jamaican and British food and culture equally though.

My heritage is Jamaica but I was born in Birmingham so I feel like I have the best of both - Brummie and Jamaican heritage. Jamaic-Brum.

The exception for me is the Jamaican Easter bun - a mix between bread and cake with cheese or fried fish. On Easter we love getting together and eating it. My daughter absolutely loves it, so I have to watch her with it sometimes, because it’s really sweet.

A selection of Davi’s favorite poems from Cherry Notes

In the early 2010’s I had a blog on WordPress.com called Cherry Notes where I used to write poetry a lot. I liked the idea of incorporating text messaging in the poems. I mostly sent it to my sister to read and God bless her, she read so many of my works.

I also wrote fanfiction about some characters from Glee and the story got a bit of a following, maybe 50 people. They’d ask, ‘When's the next one coming on?’ But eventually I got bored and left it unfinished. I feel so bad, I’d hate it if someone did that to me.

I got shortlisted for the Young Birmingham Poet Laureate in the sixth form, but I think I really grew in my writing at university. I had a lot of opportunities to just write and enjoy it. I performed at the poetry open mic night. It was great because all my friends were there.

Compass, map, and university logos

After finishing my English Master's in Sheffield and realising that teaching wasn't quite for me, I worked for a charity which addresses educational disadvantage. I was recruiting students to become teachers. It involved travelling around a little bit, where I would go to careers fairs and talk about what we do.

I worked at Newman University. I did outreach work with local schools, and I really enjoyed that job. I've always had that sort of outreach vibe, working with local younger people and just telling them about what they have the potential to do in the future. I've always done that in some way - and it led to my current job now, quite nicely.

I always wanted to work at UOB. It feels nice that I finally got a job here and that I’m based firmly in Birmingham now. I know how much UOB does for its students and its staff, and that's why I love it here.