My life proves that anyone on this planet can do anything
Care worker Vanessa starts her day with a 1.5-mile hike, then rows her plastic boat across treacherous waters before driving over an hour
will remember that image for ever.” Dennis, then 10, brother Christopher, nine, and father John moved between refugee camps after being separated from mum Florence. It would be years before they made contact again.
After John found his way to London, he arranged for the boys to join him with the help of the Red Cross.
They lived in a flat in East London, close to where John worked as a security guard and shop assistant.
“It was a lot easier sleeping without gunfire,” Dennis says. The boys went to school in Greenwich and Dennis later graduated from East London
University with a 2.1 degree in biochemistry. But it was not long before his looks drew attention.
Dennis’s first job in modelling was posing for a photo lookbook for a student designer friend.
HUMBLE
But after he joined Storm in 2018, his life would never be the same again.
Dennis knew he’d hit the big time when, after years of working at John Lewis as a student, his agent emailed to say the store wanted him for a catwalk show on the roof of their Oxford Street store. Dennis recalls:
“One of the guys I used to work with on the shop floor happened to be there too and said, ‘Dennis, what are you doing over here with these model guys?’
“I said, ‘I’m working with them now’. They couldn’t believe it. They were laughing their heads off – but stopped when I was on the catwalk.”
Dennis has since modelled for Kenzo and Louis Vuitton and appeared alongside Naomi Campbell in a 2018 Burberry Christmas ad.
But sometimes, the people behind the lens are bigger than the models.
Dennis says: “My favourite shoot was for a gentleman called
Lord Snowdon for Luncheon magazine. It was one of his last shoots.
“We were in his garden eating strawberries and he showed me his portfolio. I called my dad and said, ‘I’m having lunch with Lord Snowdon’. He said, ‘Are you crazy? Are you drunk?’
“Seeing this humble man go about his business made me fall in love with the industry even more. It all made me think, ‘Anything is possible’.”
Lord Snowdon, who was married to Princess Margaret, died a year after Dennis met him. He was 86.
Dennis, who helps support his family back home, also dreams of making a real difference to other Ugandans. “One day, I hope to pay for a hospital, educate people about AIDS and deal with the mental health issues which have gone untreated for decades,” he says. It’s a noble aim. From a model man.
YOU’VE got to feel for Vanessa Rochester when she tells her hubby: “Isle be off to work now, love.”
For the 32-year-old frontline care worker surely has the UK’s trickiest commute.
It involves a 30-minute moonlit hike, a treacherous row, occasional rock climb and over an hour’s drive.
Vanessa and her family are the sole occupants of a remote island cut off from the west coast of Scotland by a raging tidal channel.
The 300-acre peninsula is 300 yards off the island of Eilean Shona, in Loch Moidart – and the same distance from the mainland.
But that doesn’t stop mum-of-one Vanessa from diligently doing what it takes to get to the elderly residents she cares for in Lochaber – no matter what the weather. Day shifts involve getting up at 5.45am. She does nights too so will encounter the dark one way or the other – possibly both. After kissing husband Jeff, 48, and year-old son Duke goodbye, her journey to work starts with a 1.5 mile trek across the island.
She walks down a dirt track and through woodland – with protected Scotch pine and oak – to get to a crossing point on the south of the island.
Vanessa drags their 8ft plastic boat into the water and rows across the fast and often dangerous current, with the moon and stars lighting her way.
The crossing can take five minutes on a calm day – but five times as long during a storm. Vanessa then clambers out and into her Mitsubishi for the drive to work at a care home. Her worst commute, just last month, saw her blown so dramatically off course she ended up back on the island.
She had to abandon her boat, scramble up a cliff, through a bog – and then ring Jeff.
Vanessa says: “I had no idea where I was. Jeff slung Duke on his back and headed to the North Channel where we agreed he’d shine a torch across the water to enable me to find my bearing.
“Finally I spotted a beam of light. Turns out I was still on the island, but had drifted way off course and walked in the opposite direction.”
She made her way to Jeff – and still got to work, using a leaky back-up boat which is just about usable “if TREK ME OUT you row quick enough”. But it’s all worth it, says dedicated Vanessa.
She adds: “I really enjoy my job. I love working with elderly people, it’s a really good team that I work with, plus I get to see other people – which otherwise doesn’t happen much.”
Vanessa and Jeff moved into their 17th century caretakers’ waterfront cottage in 2016. Jeff manages the island for the family who own it as a retreat – fixing fences, felling trees and anything else that needs doing.
Neighbouring isle Eilean Shona is owned by Vanessa Branson – sister of Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson.
Back-up boat leaks but it’s OK if you row quickly! VANESSA ROCHESTER ON HER MEGA COMMUTE