Mick

Mick, 76, is a lifelong South Londoner. He’s lived in Balham since 1976.
When he was a kid, the doctors said he had chronic asthma and “wouldn’t have much of a life.”
He originally went to Peckham Primary but because of his asthma, was transferred to Brent Knoll Open Air School in Sydenham. A coach collected him in the morning and then drove all over South London picking up other kids with similar conditions. Once they eventually got to the school, the kids were given Breakfast, lunch and tea and they insisted that every scrap of food was eaten. They were also given a spoonful of malt. After lunch, if it wasn’t raining, the kids had to have a 1 hour sleep outdoors on benches.
At 11, Mick went to Archbishop Temple's Boys' School in Lambeth. (Apparently Charlie Chaplin went there) Because of his asthma, he was excused sports lessons and he spent the time learning to play poker instead. He doesn’t remember much else about the school apart from gazing out of the headmasters window as he was being caned for some minor indiscretion.
He left school at 15 and did various jobs until he got work as a ‘senior tubular technician’ (Micks’ joke - scaffolder). This strenuous job built up his body, made him strong and his asthma improved considerably. He started to go out a lot, went to pubs, got into fights, and did all the things a young guy did back in those days.
When he was 17 he got a girl pregnant. He wasn’t aware that he had until he went to visit her. She came from a big Irish family and when he knocked on her door, her brother answered and simply said that she’s gone back to Ireland before slamming the door in his face. He later discovered from her friend that she was pregnant and went back to Ireland to have the baby and get it adopted. Mick never heard from her again.Mick’s got three kids of his own now. They are all grown up. Their mother walked out when his youngest was just 2 so he bought up the children himself. His daughters were teenagers at the time and Mick told me that they were a huge help.
Mick has been with his current wife, ‘The love of his life,’ for the last 25 years. When I took this shot, he was waiting for her to come back with the shopping so he could help her carry it in to the house.
Now Mick is retired and is getting older, he’s noticing that the asthma has started to get worse, but told me that his puffer is brilliant.
He uses it twice a day and always carries it for emergencies. He told me it was a miracle when modern inhalers were invented. When he was a kid, he used to have to carry a glass jar everywhere that had a rubber hand pump and inhaler on it. If he had an attack, he’d have to drop crystals into the jar and operate the pump and inhale the chemical by himself. Not easy for an 8-year old and unsurprisingly, he kept breaking the glass jars.
The doctors, who in the 1940’s said Mick “wouldn’t have much of a life” clearly didn’t really have much of a clue about Mick.