Confident Catford boy Kayode Damali set to shine in the apprentice

BY CALUM FRASER
calum@slpmedia.co.uk

Lord Alan Sugar may have picked up a little more than he bargained for in this year’s series of The Apprentice.

Some would think that going on one of the BBC’s biggest TV shows would make you a little guarded about what you reveal to the public. Not for Catford boy Kayode Damali.

The 26-year-old proudly took a screenshot of his latest results from the sexual health clinic and posted it to his thousands of social media followers.

The 26-year-old said: “I don’t regret that at all. I posted it in high spirits. My mum was cool with it and at the end of the day, I am using my public profile to tackle the stigma for what young people think about sexual health.

“There is nothing wrong with being checked up. I heard South London has one of the worst rates for chlamydia in Europe.

“We need to tackle this, not keep it hushed up.” The Apprentice is a game show where a group of aspiring candidates compete against each other in a series of business- related challenges.

The winner gets a £250,000 investment in their business plan and will go into partnership with Lord Sugar.

Kayode grew up around Ladywell Park and went to St Mary’s Lewisham CofE Primary School in Lewisham High Street, before going to Forest Hill Boys Secondary School in Dacres Road, Forest Hill.

He was not allowed to reveal the application process to get on The Apprentice, but he did beat about 50,000 applicants for the coveted spot.

But he is not intimidated by the prospect of appearing on TV in front of millions of viewers. “This is not my first rodeo,” he said. “I was on Come Dine With Me [Channel 4 programme] and I’ve been on the BBC speaking to journalists about my life.

“I feel this is part of a natural progression. When I told my friends and siblings I was going to be on the show, they were like ‘yeah, that makes sense.’ “I’ve always been active online.

I’ve got about 4,000 friends on Facebook, about 1,300 on Twitter. It’s not huge, but it’s bigger than the other guys.

I looked at the other contestants and saw that some had just joined Twitter in September 2018. “These guys are not on my level.”

When asked if he was scared of meeting Lord Sugar, who is famous for his cutting and uncompromising attitude, Kayode remained confident.

“There’s zero intimidation. He’s called Alan. How can you be scared of someone who’s called Alan, he’s going to be a business partner so there’s respect, not intimidation.”

Among other things, Kayode has worked as a motivational speaker, was vice president of the student union at Crewe University and was a director of the National Union of Students. He is also passionate about animal rights.

“I’m unapologetically vegan and pro life,” he said. “There’s a lot of good human rights groups and strong movements for humans, but where’s the voice for the animals.

“There are little rabbits out there being skinned alive so people can have a cool hood on their jacket. “I feel a connection with coyotes.

Lots of people think my name sounds like cayote and they’re a lone wolf.”

The first episode of the 14th series of The Apprentice will be broadcast on Wednesday, October 3.

In the show, the business hopefuls jet off to Malta tasked with buying nine items at the lowest possible prices.