A barber. A mission. A movement.

I'm Eddie Ilic. I grew up in Bath, got into drugs in my teens, and by my late twenties I'd lost everything. In 2014, I got sober. Over ten years on, I'm still sober — and I've learned that giving back is how I stay that way.

Phil Thompson from Julian House came to see me at BA1 Hair on George Street and said, come with me — we're going to a soup kitchen. I didn't know what to expect. We walked into this place and there were people who had nothing, but they were laughing, they were talking, they were alive.

I had my scissors. I just started cutting hair. That first cut changed something in me. I felt useful again. I felt human. The man I cut that day looked in the mirror and he sat up a little straighter. That was it. In 2016, I started Eddie's Street Cuts. From then on, twice a month, we went back.

Then Genesis Trust got involved. Then more barbers. We went to Bristol. At Christmas 2020, during the pandemic, six of us set up in St James Park on Christmas Day — thirty haircuts in the cold. One woman asked for a fringe. She hadn't had a cut in months. The look on her face. That's what this is about. Not charity. Dignity.

Then the BBC came. Then more cities. In April 2027, I'm cycling from New York to San Francisco — the Forgotten America ride. 4,800 miles. 13 cities. 13 local charities. And barbers and volunteers left behind in every one of them. The network grows. That's the whole thing.