Ashley John-Baptiste is a young BBC broadcast journalist and presenter who has a remarkable story of how he overcame his troubled childhood to study at one of the world’s best universities.

Many will remember Ashley as the member of boy band group ‘The Risk’ who famously quit ITV’s ‘X Factor’, in order to pursue a career in media, during the live final show. However Ashley’s story is much more than this, it is a story of overcoming tremendous adversity to win a place to study history at Cambridge – and then graduate with a 2.1.

Ashley grew up in South London, and at the age of four he was taken into care. He grew up being shuttled between foster families and children’s homes and moved primary school three times. A bright student, he attended a comprehensive school which had three times the number of children from deprived backgrounds than the national average. There, with the help of his MP, he battled to win a place at Cambridge. Ashley says “If it wasn’t for my MP fighting for me, I wouldn’t have got the support I needed to go.”

Whilst at Cambridge, Ashley acted as a mentor to other students who grew up in care.

Ashley, who is championing for a change in fostering laws, tells the compelling, inspiring and sometimes humorous story of his childhood and how to your achieve goals, follow your dreams and never give up .He has enormous enthusiasm and passion to try to use his story as a tool to motivate and propel others to face their challenges with a sense of optimism and triumph.

Before joining the BBC News TV, Radio and digital team as a reporter across all platforms, Ashley was a BBC broadcast journalist and Victoria Derbyshire reporter. This summer Ashley was a key reporter in Russia for the Fifa 2018 World Cup. . He was nominated for the Young Talent of the Year award at this year’s RTS Television Journalism Awards.