Who we are

You don’t get to my stage in life without learning some lessons along the way. In my case I learned several. That you won’t be successful unless you really work for it. That individual success is never as powerful as team success. And that life isn’t always fair for everybody.

I also learned that the values and beliefs I was taught as a child still hold good. I still believe in giving back; I still believe that success brings responsibility, and I still believe doing what you can is always better than doing nothing.

So when I had my testimonial year I set myself a challenge of raising half a million pounds for charity. With everyone pitching in I ended up with well over a million which I gave away to a number of causes. Of course I then got a whole pile of new requests for help, and wanted to do more.

As time went on I realised I could be more effective by using my own success and motivation to galvanise others, and leading teams of likeminded people. Then my mother Eileen died from cancer in December 2008 and I lost the foundation stone of my life.

My mother thought everyone deserved the opportunity to shine - she believed in me long before I did anything to deserve it and supported me through everything. Because of her I know that nothing is unobtainable.

My mother gave me an unshakeable belief that it wasn’t just okay to shoot for the moon – it was essential. Through the Dallaglio Foundation I want to pass on that belief, but also give people the tools and money to do it.

That’s why the money we raise through the Foundation will go towards very specific, tangible projects which make a real and personal difference to people’s lives. And it’s why we are interested in ideas and communication as well as money. Together we can translate ideas into action and need into supply. We are powerful together.