0:00:03 Hi. I'm Lisa Ball and I'm the research and communications manager at Comic Relief. Basically, it means finding the stories of people who have benefitted from the money that's raised and showing all the brilliant stuff that happens when people give some money.
00:00:21 I didn't go to a particularly good school and I think the thing that school taught me was that if I was a bit naughty and a bit cheeky, it kind of got me further than actually, actually doing my homework. And I think it wasn't until something happened in my life that was really difficult and my dad died that I suddenly thought, ‘you know what, I'm going to actually have to kind of buck my ideas up and actually work hard’. I think I just wanted him to be proud of me really, and I went from getting kind of, I don't know, terrifying two Es at GCSE to actually getting a lot of A grades and getting to university. So it was quite a...it's quite a big thing in my life that probably meant I probably wouldn't be what...where I am today if that hadn't have happened.
00:01:06 I think my wanderlust probably came from growing up in a town outside Croydon with absolutely nothing going on in it and thinking the pinnacle of weekends was going to the department stores and having a McDonald's, and that was kind of growing up around that area. It was only really when someone took me to go to their university, someone who was a bit older than me said, ‘come down for the weekend and check it out’. And I was like, ‘My God! I have got to come to this place. It looks like so much fun’. I didn't care about the work, I wasn't interested in that. It was totally the kind of partying scene and the young people and being able to not live in Croydon.
00:01:42 But once I got there, it wasn't so much the work, or even sort of, you know, partying or whatever, it was actually kind of hearing people's stories about where they had been. Because I'd only really been to France on holiday, and suddenly people were telling me about their trips to India and Africa and I was like, ‘My God! If these people can do that, then why can't I?’
00:02:04 All I wanted to do was have a good time and see the world and have an adventure really. That was my plan. And after university, I sort of spent some time doing some temp work and then went and travelled for about a year and a half. I started in Australia and I worked and then I worked my through Indonesia and the Philippines and basically all around south-east Asia.
00:02:25 It just confirmed to me that I could go anywhere in the world on my own and I would kind of make it happen. I'd find somewhere to live, I'd find something to do and it just really taught me that, you know, as I said to you, that the most challenging things sometimes have always ended up being the best things.
00:02:47 When I'd got back from travelling, I started writing up some of my experiences and sent them off to publications and then while I was temping, I was suddenly finding that things were getting picked up. So, I got offered work experience at Lonely Planet from that, and so I started to kind of research and do all my travel writing. And so that was a kind of...all the things that I loved doing which was writing and travelling all kind of coming into one big area.
00:03:14 Before I did this job, I was a director, a TV director making promos and it was the sort of promos that you put between the programmes so that people watch more tele. And I think one day I was sitting there thinking, ‘God, you know, my job is to make people watch more tele, and I don't even want to watch that tele so, you know, what is the point of that?’ Now I always think, you know, you should do something at the end of the day you come back and feel proud of, and, so when I saw the job at Comic Relief, I thought, ‘well even though it's going to be the same long hours and it's going to be challenging at points, at least I know at the end of the year that the films that I've made have raised money or have helped people to understand the issues and then, you know, made a difference to people's lives. And you get to wear this once a year which can only be good.
Lisa Ball
Lisa Ball
Hi. I'm Lisa Ball and I'm the research and communications manager at Comic Relief. Basically, it means finding the stories of people who have benefitted from the money that's raised and showing all the brilliant stuff that happens when people give some money.
I didn't go to a particularly good school and I think the thing that school taught me was that if I was a bit naughty and a bit cheeky, it kind of got me further than actually, actually doing my homework. And I think it wasn't until something happened in my life that was really difficult and my dad died that I suddenly thought, ‘you know what, I'm going to actually have to kind of buck my ideas up and actually work hard’. I think I just wanted him to be proud of me really, and I went from getting kind of, I don't know, terrifying two Es at GCSE to actually getting a lot of A grades and getting to university. So it was quite a...it's quite a big thing in my life that probably meant I probably wouldn't be what...where I am today if that hadn't have happened.
I think my wanderlust probably came from growing up in a town outside Croydon with absolutely nothing going on in it and thinking the pinnacle of weekends was going to the department stores and having a McDonald's, and that was kind of growing up around that area. It was only really when someone took me to go to their university, someone who was a bit older than me said, ‘come down for the weekend and check it out’. And I was like, ‘My God! I have got to come to this place. It looks like so much fun’. I didn't care about the work, I wasn't interested in that. It was totally the kind of partying scene and the young people and being able to not live in Croydon.
But once I got there, it wasn't so much the work, or even sort of, you know, partying or whatever, it was actually kind of hearing people's stories about where they had been. Because I'd only really been to France on holiday, and suddenly people were telling me about their trips to India and Africa and I was like, ‘My God! If these people can do that, then why can't I?’
All I wanted to do was have a good time and see the world and have an adventure really. That was my plan. And after university, I sort of spent some time doing some temp work and then went and travelled for about a year and a half. I started in Australia and I worked and then I worked my through Indonesia and the Philippines and basically all around south-east Asia.
It just confirmed to me that I could go anywhere in the world on my own and I would kind of make it happen. I'd find somewhere to live, I'd find something to do and it just really taught me that, you know, as I said to you, that the most challenging things sometimes have always ended up being the best things.
When I'd got back from travelling, I started writing up some of my experiences and sent them off to publications and then while I was temping, I was suddenly finding that things were getting picked up. So, I got offered work experience at Lonely Planet from that, and so I started to kind of research and do all my travel writing. And so that was a kind of...all the things that I loved doing which was writing and travelling all kind of coming into one big area.
Before I did this job, I was a director, a TV director making promos and it was the sort of promos that you put between the programmes so that people watch more tele. And I think one day I was sitting there thinking, ‘God, you know, my job is to make people watch more tele, and I don't even want to watch that tele so, you know, what is the point of that?’ Now I always think, you know, you should do something at the end of the day you come back and feel proud of, and, so when I saw the job at Comic Relief, I thought, ‘well even though it's going to be the same long hours and it's going to be challenging at points, at least I know at the end of the year that the films that I've made have raised money or have helped people to understand the issues and then, you know, made a difference to people's lives. And you get to wear this once a year which can only be good.
Lisa Ball finds and tells the stories of people who have benefitted from money raised by Comic Relief. "I think my wanderlust probably came from growing up in a town outside Croyden with absolutely nothing going on in it, thinking the pinnacle of weekends was going to the department stores and having a McDonalds."
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