November 26, 2021
In his forties, Neil Batten decided to change his life and return to education at Northern College. This would ultimately lead to him becoming a Regional Prison Coordinator for a major health charity.
Neil’s impressive journey started after attending a number of short residential courses in 2016 and 2018. These included Drug Awareness, Health Promotion, Understanding Mental Health and IT Skills.
Neil has commented: “It was not just the knowledge I gained from the courses themselves that was so important. The positivity and encouragement I received from the staff and my fellow students was massively important too. The fact that people cared, and could see something in me, helped me to see I had a future.”
In 2018, Neil did some courses at Aspire Drug and Alcohol in Doncaster and gave some talks which led to working with the health charity The Hepatitis C Trust as a volunteer. He progressed to working as a Peer Educator in the Prison system.
Neil is now a Regional Prison Coordinator for the East Midlands region. He refers to his work as his ‘calling’ and undertakes teaching sessions covering the risks of hepatitis C and promotes testing.
Northern College recently lit its building up in purple in support of the charity to help raise awareness of the condition.
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