Meet the army veteran who went from being homeless to running a thriving business and giving back to Leeds community

Formerly of the Royal Dragoon Guards in the British Army, he did not have a place to stay after the breakdown of a long-term relationship and he remained homeless for around a year. In 2022, however, Matthew’s life is almost unrecognisable.

Alongside his business partner Simon Johnson, he runs competition website All Star Prizes and is predicting their turnover to be in excess of £2m this year. Having experienced immense hardship in his own life in the not too distant past, Matthew is determined to be a force for good and use his position to give back to the Leeds community.

He said: “The experience I've had is my drive and motivation to get up and go and do this every single day. Through the profit we've raised, we've been able to do really good things. I feel like All Star Prizes are going to have a massive impact in the local community over the next couple of years.”

The business recently donated brand new furniture to the DIY SOS build in Seacroft, which created a new home for the Children in Need-funded project Getaway Girls. When the country was in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic, Matthew helped deliver snacks and drinks to NHS staff and All Star Prizes has worked closely with Martin House Hospice and children in Leeds suffering from serious illnesses. Going forward, the business aims to establish a mentorship scheme to give opportunities to young people in the city.

Matthew explained: “Moving forward, we've just signed for a new office in Leeds and we're looking to expand and take on members of staff, which is great because it feels like we're giving even more back to the community. Nobody in my family has run a business, everything I've learned I've done off my own back.

"What we want to do when we have our own space is set up training sessions for children, where they come in and we invite prominent members of the community with successful businesses to come in and share key notes and stories about their journeys, what they have done and how they did it. They can give advice to the youth. We want to try and help as much as possible.

"Through the network that we’ve got, we know the best of the best when it comes to design, marketing and website building, we want to open those skills to young people and give them a head start if they’ve thought about starting their own business.”

One of the motivating factors behind the plans is Matthew’s own experience as a young person. He left school without any qualifications and his decision to join the British Army was fuelled by a desire for direction in life. He now wants to ensure young people do not experience feeling “lost” as he once did.

He said: “To go from where I was, being homeless and moving into a Leeds City Council flat, to be where we are now and where we're going to progress and move forward to, it's just incredible really. This is one of the reasons we want to offer support to young kids around the area because I left school with no qualifications. I was a class clown, I didn't get any GCSEs or anything.

"That's one of the reasons I joined the army, to get some direction in life. I felt a bit lost, really. It wasn’t that I wasn’t bright or articulate or anything like that but I didn't feel that I fitted within that box. I didn’t find a passion to follow. It's taken me all this time to find my calling in life and I've pretty much done it all myself really.”