My name is Ash. I am a British-born Sikh woman, a Senior Youth Justice Practitioner, a motivational speaker, and the founder of 2RaysHope and Ash2rayshope Life and Wellness Coaching.
I live with a rare skin condition called Congenital Melanocytic Nevus (CMN), and for most of my life, society told me that difference was something to hide.
CMN affects approximately 1 in 500,000 people. It is not just dark skin; it can involve excessive hair growth, lifelong surgeries, and an increased risk of cancer. My surgeries began the day I was born and continue into adulthood. Yet the physical pain was never the hardest part. The hardest part was how people responded to my body.
Growing up, I was bullied relentlessly. I was called “spotty,” “Dalmatian,” and ugly. I was excluded, stared at, and made to feel as though I was something to be tolerated rather than accepted. Within cultural spaces, particularly South Asian communities, harmful myths surrounded my condition. Some believed it would disappear with prayer. Those narratives caused deep wounds—not only for me, but for my parents.
Empowering others has become my purpose, because when people are seen, they begin to heal.
As a child, I desperately wanted to fit in. Food became my comfort. Silence became my survival strategy. Loneliness followed me into adulthood, shaping how I saw myself and my worth. Despite this, I built a career centred on justice and compassion. For over 15 years, I have worked in Youth Justice, specialising in mental health, domestic violence, harmful sexual behaviour, and child sexual exploitation. I currently work directly with young offenders—young people society often gives up on, yet who desperately need understanding, structure, and belief.
Everything changed in my 30s when I discovered a global CMN support network in America. For the first time, I met people who looked like me and understood my experience without explanation. That connection changed how I saw myself. Through meditation, self-development, and unlearning toxic beauty standards, I began to accept myself—not despite my differences, but because of them.
That self-acceptance pushed me to face fears I once thought impossible. I walked the Real Catwalk, appeared in a short documentary on mental health and body positivity, and fronted a cosmetics campaign. These moments were never about vanity. They were about choice. Wearing makeup does not mean hiding. Even if it does, who gets to judge? Beauty is not skin-deep; it is soul-deep.
I founded 2RaysHope because I never want another child to grow up feeling as alone as I did. The organisation works across many countries, especially the UK and India, addressing mental health, body image, disability, trauma, and discrimination—particularly within communities where these conversations remain silenced by shame.
Ash supports children facing challenges, so they don’t feel alone (credit Grab the Lense – Mr Ram Yadhav)
For the past three years, I have volunteered around a month each year in India and most recently lived and worked in India for six months, supporting some of the most vulnerable members of society. I have worked with girls rescued from red-light districts, children living with HIV, AIDS, and Thalassemia in Mumbai, acid attack survivors in Delhi, young people struggling with substance misuse in Punjab, and terminally ill children whose courage humbles me daily. I also train and consult with NGOs across Delhi, Punjab, Lucknow, and Mumbai, helping them strengthen their impact. During COVID-19, I provided mental health support in both the UK and India.
As a motivational speaker, people often disclose trauma, abuse, or discrimination to me for the first time. I hold those moments with deep responsibility. Empowering others has become my purpose, because when people are seen, they begin to heal.
My mission is simple but urgent: to break barriers, challenge stigma, and create a world where difference is not merely accepted, but celebrated. In a society obsessed with perfection, I choose truth. I choose visibility. I choose to stand exactly as I am. None of us were born to be hidden.
