Tumbles, being a cleaning company, and the service that it provides, just like having a bakery or a supermarket. I think it’s important to have a laundry. 

My name is Dorrel Bravo, and I’m a contractor. 

10 years ago, we started working at Tumbles. My brother, which lives close to me, and he is close to me – we wanted to take the business on. He’s also an engineer, and I’m a contractor.

They say cleanliness is godliness – you must have a clean surrounding at all times or try to have a clean surrounding at all times. 

People spend eight hours at work or more sometimes. So if you work out a system where it’s feasible, and it’s reasonable for them to come get their clothes cleaned and pressed, then it makes it easier for them that at the end of the day they can enjoy a bit of London life. You know, where you go out for a drink, meet a friend, that kind of thing. So I think that laundry is important just as it is to go get food, you know. 

Listen, how I think and how I feel in Covid was that there was a need for Tumbles. And for the service that we provide.

What happened in Covid was the lockdown, and I got a few phone calls where people had been stuck. And they couldn’t get access to their mum or dad or uncle or aunt. And there were older folks and they weren’t allowed to leave the house. So they would ask us to go pick up their clothes for them and then get it cleaned and delivered. 

We realised that – guess what - this is how we can approach it, and this is what we can do: we’re into the cleaning thing. So let us do it the right way. We tried our best not to come in contact with our customers by having them leave their clothes at the door. Letting them know that we’re outside first before we go in, and then picking up after. Even though we might have 15 or 20 customers we had to do it one at a time. But then we were happy because we know that we were doing it the right way.

People are scared to even talk to me. Especially the OAPs, they talk to me from behind the door. I remember vividly one of my close customers. He’s been suffering with prostate cancer for five years. He calls me Mr. Nice Guy. Even though I told him my name was Bravo he says ‘No, I call you Mr. Nice Guy because you’re Mr. Nice Guy’. So, I remember I went to pick up his clothes around Somerleyton, and it’s kind of dreadful at the time thinking about what he had said, because with the disease and having cancer, it was difficult for him to protect himself. For someone at his age to consider dying… that made him, you know – don’t want to even eat.

That helped push me into doing what I had to do. And to take extra care in what I was doing as well. You know people were there and they need clean clothes. You know, they need clean linen, and they themselves weren’t able to do so for themselves. 

For us, it is important, I see it as being important to preserve the lives of everyone including the elderly because they have got something to contribute to us as well.

Bob Marley says as long as there’s life, there’s hope, you know, and I think as long as we have hope in this life that we’re living, we can all do our best by helping each other. Protecting each other. And it’s as simple as, because life is there for all of us to enjoy, you know, and to live.

So, this is what it is from, to recover from a storm. It is not only the bigger heads that goes and say, ‘Oh, do this or do that’ and ‘This is important and that is important’. The community, which is families, know how to take care of themselves and to take care of their friends. You know, the lady next door might be an elderly person, so her daughter is not going to be able to come. So let us look out and see how we can help her, and what is it that she needs. That is recovering. That is moving forward. You know, to be there when you’re needed. To be there and not be selfish.

Whatever it is that you decide to do, then it plays a part in all of us growing – as a community, as a family and as a country.