Former Leamington man will return to town to hold event aimed at 'changing our future for the better'

The Change Our Future Symposium, which will take place at the Warwick Gates Community Centre on Saturday November 2 between 10.30am to 10pm, has received goodwill from Sir David Attenborough who replied by hand written letter to Steve's invite has explained that he is not able to attend but hopes the event is a success.

Steve, who lived in Leamington for 30 years with his wife Sarah before they moved to France in 2013, worked for two Leamington-based charities – initially for CORD as assistant director before setting up Thare Machi Education (TME) in Old Town.

The latter publishes interactive audio visual lessons for some for the world’s poorest people in their own language and has a library of over 800 digital lessons in 65 languages.

Of the event, he said: "You could think of it as an existential mid-life crisis event but it was more a natural outcome of my life’s experiences.

"I have been fortunate enough to travel to some for the world’s poorest communities and some of these are already feeling the effects of climate change. Communities that were already marginalised are being pushed to the brink of survival – and in the long run that is what we all face unless we do something now.

"My generation – particularly those who were born in the UK - have had possibly the easiest and most comfortable lives of any group ever and I suddenly felt we have a responsibility to pass that on to our children and grandchildren.”

The registration fee for the event is £10 but Steve has emphasised that this will be waived for anyone under 40 and anyone else who is not able to afford to pay.