Picture a young woman in London from a small town in the Netherlands, she’s enjoying the big bustling city lifestyle, working hard, sipping her coffee in fancy cafes and experiencing endless adventures in London. Yep, that was me, Tirza.

My Slough story starts 6 year ago when me and the love of my life decided to buy a house together. A house with a living kitchen, it must absolutely have a living kitchen. But, of course, considering all the negative rumours that I heard about Slough I said to my husband “Not Slough, anywhere but Slough.” Why would I come to a town that is so indulgingly sweet with crime and negativity? Oh and of course, they weren’t able to serve me a skinny flat white, an ordinary skinny flat white, the guy at Greggs stared at me like I was from another universe! So tell me why would I move to a town where they can’t serve me a nice cup of coffee?

Well, the answer was quite simple, me and my husband found our dream house, quite plain and unembellished from the outside but fabulously grand and stylish on the inside… and it had a living kitchen… an enormous living kitchen! Buying a house in Slough made me realise that looking beyond the antagonistic views of Slough will reveal a whole new realm of beauty and positivity waiting to be explored.

Slough became my reality. It challenged my preconceptions. Sure, problems existed, but complaining wouldn’t solve them. However, doing something actively about it will result in direct impact. This is why I co-founded ‘Slough Anti-Litter society’ to tackle the litter problem in Slough.

This journey taught me a valuable lesson, dig beneath the surface. Beauty and potential can hide in unexpected places. It’s about taking a chance, and sometimes, a skinny flat white isn’t the biggest hurdle.

To see change, Be the change