I turned my life around.

Single mum Chanelle Jordan returned to full time education to pay back society for helping her through hard times. When Chanelle started first year her only child, Leo, started P1 (see Chanelle’s video interview below).

Chanelle’s bubbly personality hides the tough childhood of someone who has lived through The Troubles in Belfast’s Shankhill Road, and has overcome hardships that most of us may not have been able to deal with so well.

While living with mental health issue’s in our teens and early twenty’s would seem more than enough to deal with, having then become homeless and pregnant without a partner would push most of us to breaking point.

Chanelle not only overcame these obstacles, but has gone on to train for a career in caring for those with learning disabilities, as her way of paying back the kindness given to her by family and friends during those difficult years.

The child she brought into the world turned his mother’s life around, when Chanelle realised that if she didn’t sort out her life she wouldn’t be able to give her son the life she wanted for him.

Her five year old son, Leo Jordan, is as bubbly as his mum, and with an inquisitive and mischievous sense of humour that lights up the room.

Chanelle and son, Leo (Antrim)

At Botanic Gardens, Belfast.

Photography, videography and story by Bout Yeh photographers Belfast