Alison Venn

"I moved to Norwich in 1982 to start my first job after my A levels & attended Norwich Christian Fellowship, where Pete Farley was one of the elders. My sister and brother-in-law, Hilary and Charles Hainsworth, and my brother and sister-in-law, Mike and Chris Powell, were members. I had a period of unemployment in the summer of 1986, while I was waiting to start a secretarial course at Norwich City College. During this time, Pete asked me to support him in a reception role in his new initiative to help those caught up in drugs, called The Tackle Shop. This was situated on the first floor of a premises on St Giles St in Norwich. I remember being in charge of the index card file of clients & making lots of cups of tea and coffee! 

The Tackle Shop, of course, developed into the Matthew Project. Seeing now how far the Matthew Project has come since those early days and how many it has helped, I am honoured to have worked with Pete and to have been there at the very beginning."