I first met Mark about 10 years ago.

I had survived the endless financial juggling act and the almost constant rejection that are the lot of most young actors and found quite a lot of success both critical and financial. I naively thought that was to be the end of those struggles, but I was to be very wrong!

Success brought its rewards for sure but it also brought responsibilities and when any meaningful work dried up for nearly a year I was more insecure and unsure of myself than even in those early days.

I was introduced to Mark by a friend who had been at drama school with him, so even though we seemed to be from very different backgrounds, I hoped he might understand the challenges I was facing.

My moods had become pretty unbearable and I was very very hard to live with. My frustrations came out all over the place and my poor agent used to get it in the neck all the time. The fact that I am still an actor, have a career that I can be proud of, a wife and children and didn’t end up drinking myself into oblivion is in no small part down to Mark showing me there is always another way of looking at things and doing things – the fact I have the same wife and even the same agent is proof of that.

For someone who has made a life out of showing off by being other people, it was and still is amazing how totally introspective and up my own ass I can get.

I guess we all need someone to have faith in us when we don’t have any of our own and for me that is often, even now!  Mark has been there for me. Yes he can talk a lot but he also really listens and is there to encourage and support in so many different ways.

His incredibly broad experience of life, which has not been without its own serious issues, allied to what seems to be a genuine and insightful interest in human beings and what makes them tick, remains thank God to this day one of the essential stabilising planks of my life.

In some ways it is even more valuable now because I have even more to lose and more responsibilities that I very often wake up thinking I can’t handle and never really wanted!

A confidante, a guide, a support through everything, never judging, ever encouraging, but above all Mark has always helped me laugh, at life and at myself.

Whatever your challenges, whatever line of work you are in I cannot recommend Mark more. It has been one of my best investments – and at the start to be honest by far the most begrudging one that I have ever made. What the hell do I know!

– M.S.

Actor