SPY WHO SPOTTED MY POTENTIAL

IT Was a chance conversation with a spy that led to Mike Trott enrolling with the OU.

From his boyhood in Bristol, Mike, now 33, had dreamed of joining the army, inspired by his grandfather who was in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME).

He made little effort at school, he says, because his understanding was that ‘you didn’t need an education to join the military’.

He signed up in 2003 when he was 18, but just three years later was medically discharged after a sports injury left him with several fractured bones in his legs which refused to heal.

‘I went off the rails for a year or so, doing a lot of drinking and stuff like that,’ he says. ‘But then I got a job running activities for a holiday company in Egypt.

‘It was while I was there I got to know a British military intelligence

officer who took an interest in me.

‘He seemed very surprised that I wasn’t a graduate and said he thought I had the potential to go to university and get a degree.

‘ I really liked and respected this man — and the fact that here was someone who thought I was smart.’

a traditional university wasn’t an option because Mike had no a-levels and little money, so he turned to the OU where he was offered a full bursary.

He did an OU foundation degree in sports fitness and management, and went on to study further at anglia ruskin University in Cambridge, where he has since completed a Masters and is now in the middle of a PhD.

at first, Mike supported himself by working part-time as a gym manager, but then won an international competition called ‘ The One’, the fitness industry’s equivalent of The X Factor, and became what he describes as ‘ the world champion of fitness instructors’.

It led to him delivering masterclasses and workshops with fitness company Les Mills, which operates internationally.

‘The OU opened up my way of thinking about everything, including my career, and that has done really magnificent things for me.’

after his PhD, Mike aims to teach sports science at university — and says he will focus on helping other ex- service personnel to be given the chances he had.

‘I feel that veterans who have dedicated their lives to a cause, or to their country, should get funding to help them with their education,’ he says. ‘Otherwise you are doing them a disservice. Like me, they have so much potential to give, and without education, they might not be able to give it.’