The Money Group (TMG) has taken its brand ambassador, Ashley McKenzie, on a tour of local schools to promote anti-bullying, healthy living, and his hopes for Olympic success in Tokyo in 2020.

In total, TMG and McKenzie visited six schools across Yorkshire and the North East speaking to over 1,500 children, teachers and parents in the process.

Michelle Leyland of Adverse Money came up with the idea. She said: “It was great to see how Ashley interacted with the pupils and he certainly knows how to work a crowd. The idea I had was for Ashley to show children from an early age, how you can still achieve great things even though you may not always have the best start in life.

“He himself had to overcome many obstacles, to achieve his success and he talked eloquently and honestly about those issues.”

McKenzie said: “It was great to get on the road with TMG and meet other brands within the Group. I love teaching the kids and will look to do more of this next year and will endeavour to visit any school that wants to get behind our positive attitude programme.”

Scott Thorpe, director of TMG, added: “Ashley has such a great story to tell and he made a lot of friends over the two days we visited the schools together. The kids loved throwing him around on the mats and hearing his stories about the Olympics and seeing his medals.

“He even managed to throw me even though I’m twice his size and I’ve still got the bruises to prove it.”