To win a programme called SAS: Who Dares Wins suggests a person is pretty hard.
But 25-year-old Moses Adeyemi, who lives in East Ham, is actually full of love – especially for Newham.
Despite winning the Channel 4 series, during which he was subjected to vicious interrogation and told to jump 30ft off a bridge, the ex-prisoner’s biggest dream is to improve the chances of struggling people in the borough.
“When I won, I had this feeling of being able to do absolutely anything,” Moses, who was jailed for nearly two years between January 2012 and December 2013 for his part in a robbery, said.
“I felt like I could hold my head up so high.”
But he added: “The best thing was when people from Newham started saying good things about me.”
For the last two years, Moses has been working with the Silver Line Project, which was established to help people with complex physical and mental problems.
“It’s all about getting people away from the bad path,” he said.
It is a path the former Little Ilford School pupil knows well, having turned to crime after losing his job at Woolworths’ Ilford branch in 2008.
“I left home when I was really young,” he said. “I looked everywhere for months to find another job but I couldn’t find one.
“I just didn’t want to go back home, so in the end I made the wrong choice.”
Now the personal trainer, who grew up in Warrior Square, Manor Park, wants to show people they can achieve whatever they want to achieve.
“This is about Newham – it’s about not wanting to leave Newham, but wanting to stay and improve it,” he said.
“We can do anything here. It’s always possible if you just believe you can do it.”
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