We both could see that this lawyer would have to report back to someone. I posed the question: if we converted some old toilets and called them the Pee Pods, would they still be on my case? We crossed swords time and time again. I politely pointed out that, after much research, Apple only had the copyright on the name ‘Pod’ for software, music and computers, not youth development centres. They said again that we were diluting their brand. I was with my gracious, wise chairman, Les Taylor, and we were ushered into the big lawyer’s office.

I even went to meet the lawyer at Canary Wharf in London.

I was angry that they were giving us this unfounded opposition. Apple, the computer and phone company, were not happy that we’d called our centre the Ypod! He said we were diluting their brand! I thought and said, ‘C’mon, why not give us some iPods and we can run a completion for young people! We are a charity, helping them.’ The lawyer wasn’t convinced. Then I got a call from Steve Jobs’ top lawyer in the UK. This came about because we ran a competition about the name and a young lady chose Ypod – we loved it! We had a recording studio, Internet cafe and drop in centre, youth apprenticeships, gig nights, alternative education for excluded schoolchildren and those on the verge of exclusion, dance classes, church for youth on Sundays – wow, lives were getting changed, powerfully. However, I must warn you! Pioneering was like cutting through steel – this was from everything from our bank account, to funding applications – there will be opposition to your mission. We were gaining national notoriety – we’d had visits from Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg! We were used as one of four centres in the UK, by the National Youth Agency, as a case study for BIG capital funded youth programmes! Things kept growing as we had leadership training every month and every week for those we were developing as senior managers. Things just kept increasing as I kept just turning up at my now new office in the completed Youth Development Centre called the Ypod. Woking YMCA has got about ten paid members of staff and lots of volunteers and interns on the books.

(I nearly said the UK – I don’t want to be evangelastic!) We were doing so much it was phenomenal. We got more programmes than anybody in Surrey. CHALLENGES – INCLUDING STEVE JOBS VICTORY! We completed the first floor of Woking YMCA.

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