AS a qualified life coach Michael Vingerhoets wants nothing more than to help young people.

And he knows more than anyone how important it is to get the support and nurturing to get on in life.

Having launched a successful venture providing school photography to schools across the South East of England and into London, the dad-of-two fully admits he always went into it with the hope of launching a scheme which would help and empower young people to get apprenticeships, and the back-up they need to get a head-start in work.

Michael, now 39, had previously worked for a successful national school photography company offering a similar service for 11 years.

He says what he really wanted to do was be a life coach and help young people.

“I mentored in the secondary school I went to for years and I absolutely loved helping the boys I worked with there.

“I didn’t really want to be doing what I was doing for the company before but I could not make a living from being a life coach.

“So when the opportunity to set up a company with a business partner doing the school photography I said I only really wanted to do it if I could then set up a youth empowering program as well,” he says.

So determined was he, the company he set up with his partner, is even called Yep (Youth Empowering Program) Schools Direct.

And having already started apprenticeships within the Dedham-based office, the Youth Empowering Program will be officially rolled out in the spring.

Michael himself is open and frank about where his desire to help young people comes from.

His childhood and first 16 years were in his own words “colourful” and he himself left school with poor GCSEs results and no clear vision of where he wanted to be.

Born and brought up in Colchester, Michael explains from birth to the age of three months he was living in a small room (with no windows) at Severalls Mental Hospital where his birth mother was being treated for bipolar disorder and manic depression.

Not well enough to look after him, his mother lost custody of baby Michael to his birth father but it was his sister and her husband, Michael’s aunt and uncle, who would bring him up.

“They took me on as their own and I was fortunate enough to stay in the family.

“But I was still having regular visits to my birth mother and also with my real father, as they were not together any more.

“My real mum lived in Windsor, her father was actually one of the Royal Gardeners, and I would often go and stay with them within the grounds of Windsor Castle.

“I had a lot of dreams about the Royal Family as I was growing up and later found out this might be because I probably did see them from time to time,” laughs Michael.

But by the time he was four, the visits and lack of continuity were starting to distress him and he refused to go and stay with his mother who by this time had a new partner.

“I never cried as a baby or a child, and still doesn’t cry easily now.

“I had counselling when I was 25 and my counsellor said this is probably because I was in that small room for three months with no-one really picking me up or cuddling me.

“I also think that is where my hatred of being in small spaces with no light comes from.

“When we looked for offices for Yep I was adamant I had to have natural light and be able to look out over fields.

“I was always dead against counselling and did not think it would help but I realise now I was getting very angry about things and I did need to look at what had happened to me,” he says.

With a different surname to his family, and younger brother, Michael says as a child he wanted to feel like everyone else.

“I had a different last name and I really felt that I wanted to just be a part of all of that.

“As much as I may have had lots of fun, having to see my real mum and dad sometimes felt a bit like I could not move on and live a normal life like other children,” he says.

The family had been living in Old Heath but moved to West Bergholt when Michael was ten, just after his grandad died.

He explains that only a few years earlier, aged six he had a dearly-loved baby sister who sadly died aged 17 months having suffered from heart problems.

“My dear mum had a huge amount to deal within the space of a few short years.

“She lost her baby daughter, which now as a dad myself I just cannot imagine.

“Then, when I was 16, I witnessed our dad collapse suddenly and he died,” he explains. His dad was just 43.

Michael says he had always been very closed off and gave a confident front, excelling at sport despite not realising his potential in exams.

"After I had counselling I realised a lot of things about myself and I still use alternative therapies if I am getting stressed or feeling off track,” he adds.

He says the help he received got him interested in the idea of setting goals in life, and it is something he remains so passionate about and advocates while working with young people.

He has been working with Colchester Institute and currently has young apprentices working in his school photography company, and he offers a coaching program to all his trainee and apprentice staff.

“I’m a positive person and pity is the last thing I require, but I feel my story explains why I want to help young people build their confidence and achieve and become the best they can be.

“I left school with poor GCSEs results and I did a YTS scheme where I was treated like an unpaid slave doing menial tasks and didn’t get a lot out of it.

“That is why I really invest in the young people we have here at Yep. After the year they are here I fully expect to give them a job if they have done well and proved themselves,” he says.

Michael, who lives in Colchester with his wife Natasha and children Bella, seven, and Beau, one, also wants to help children in Africa and has created a new partnership with a Colchester-based charity to do just that.

“I just want to help young people get from A to B more successfully,” he says simply.