On the day we met, a sunny Sunday Morning, Doreen welcomed me to her weekly 11am church service, pride was loud across Doreen’s face as she smiled at her church friends. This was clearly a home away from home.

In fact, there wasn’t a moment during the three-hour service that Doreen did not have a smile on her face. As the choir sang on the red steps towards the front of the large white room, Doreen stood, the atmosphere was bright and electric, she swayed and stamped her feet to the gospel music clapping and repeating a message of hope that seemed to touch all the people in the church.

Doreen’s early life

This iconic parishioner’s early life began in the church. She moved to Reading from London at age six and found a home in the chapel. Her father was a vicar and bid for the church, hoping to create a place the community could come and worship.

“We experienced a lot of racism when we first moved to Reading, the classic ‘does it rub off’ was said a lot insinuating our skin colour was something to be washed away. We never got invited to parties or people houses because their parents or grandparents didn’t like the way we looked, despite this it was never isolating, we had the church and that’s all that mattered.”

In fact, those early years in the church formed many key parts of Doreen’s life, she met her lifelong friend Marlene Robinson at the age of 10 and once Doreen’s dad moved away to Leeds to look after a new church, she soon fell in love with the new vicar’s son, a man by the name of Charles Lawrence, Doreen’s current husband of over 30 years, Both of which spoke to me about their relationship with her.

Doreen’s Journey

Doreen spent her formative years growing up Reading, she decided to work for herself once she became a mother. After her first successful business venture she looked at other accommodating career options.

“I decided to retrain as a teacher, that way I could have the school holidays, I taught in a college for 10-15 years. During this time, I began looking into a childcare business”.

“In half term of 2018 whilst I was still working at the college is when we had the call about Dom [Dominic], after that I just didn’t feel as though I could go back into the classroom”.

Following the passing of her son, Dominic, Doreen decided to focus on her childcare business - Mighty Allstars even more, she observed that the toys the children she cared for played with had a lack of diversity. Why was It that there were not many dolls on the market that represented the black community?

“I went to many toy department stores, and they said stuff like no one asks for them and its not the demand. Online you could find some beautiful ones but they were £200-£400, who can afford that on a normal budget?!”

When I first started the business, I would sell the dolls on eBay but distributors would try and drive me out the market, they would sell the same dolls I would for a fraction of the price, I decided it was time to make my own! I wanted a doll that would be affordable and beautiful.

Once I had established myself as a brand, I decided to send them to Harrods, that has been the dream since the beginning!

Charles Lawrence's story

When speaking with Charles, I wanted to first discuss the beginning of their relationship.

“I met Doreen in the church, she was my first ever girlfriend and then my wife, 2 years into marriage she told me that the first time she ever saw me she knew I was going to be the man she married. You could almost say she set me up!” he laughed thinking back to the first few years of marriage.

Fast forward to present day and they now have two thriving businesses, one of these being Mighty Allstars a Childcare business that provides before and after school clubs.

“We’ve got schools asking us to potentially take over their after-school club, it’s exciting because our little kingdom can grow, we currently look after 306 children, one of my favourite traits of Doreen is how caring she is, I think this is why she gets on so well with the kids”