At 21 I moved away to Nottingham to work.

90% of the people were brilliant.

A few, though, - particularly 2 old guys tried to be clever and ‘bully’ me with anti- Welsh crap.

I just laughed it off. Gave it back twice as strong as I got it. I’m intensely proud to be Welsh and all it confirmed to me was I was better than them.
It soon stopped.

For me it was another part of growing up and fighting my corner.

There was also loads of friendly ‘banter’ which just made me feel that I fitted in. One lad used to ring me up pretending to be various people just to hear me say ‘speaking’ in my strong Welsh accent.
And then he’d copy me and we’d both wet ourselves laughing over it. I’d then make fun of his stupid ( to me) East Midlands accent and the fact they call everyone ‘duck’. My scouse mate got it too 😂

Mostly I learned that the English in general are lovely people and no different to us. As a young family with nothing except a little baby a crappy car, a lot of love and a bit of hope, we were welcomed into the community and will never forget the generosity of some people who we’d never met before.