BRENT HEROES

Click through the list below to find out about the achievements of these heroes from the Black community with a connection to Brent.

Rachel Yankey

Rachel Yankey is a former professional footballer for Arsenal and England. She began playing football in Queens Park as the only girl in an all-male team. Aged eight, she shaved her head and went by the name Ray, an acronym for Rachel Aba Yankey. She represented Brent at the London Youth Games and Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics. She once held the record for the most appearances ever for England, having played in 129 matches for the Lionesses.

Raggo Zulu

Raggo Zulu Rebel is a song writer, recording artist, content provider, a youth work and workshop facilitator training young people to express through music.

Raheem Sterling

Raheem Sterling is a professional football player. Sterling moved to London from Jamaica aged five. The ‘Boy from Brent’ has spoken of Bridge Park community centre in Stonebridge as a key part of his childhood. He began his football career with Alpha and Omega FC in Kingsbury. He then joined Queens Park Rangers where he scored so many goals that his coach Steve Gallen joked about renaming the team Raheem Park Rangers. He was signed to Liverpool in 2010, Manchester City in 2015 and Chelsea in 2022. He has first played for the senior England team in 2012. In June 2021, he received an MBE for his work fighting for racial equality in sport. Sterling has spoken about his pride in coming from Wembley.

Rhoda Ibrahim

CEO of SAAFI, a community-based organisation in Brent founded and led by British-Somali mums to help each other and their children for positive Integration.  An enthusiastic community builder with more than 30 years of extensive experience in hands-on management level in resilience, capacity building, conflict understanding and peace building and rehabilitation for war torn communities from the Horn of Africa (including Djibouti, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen and UK) through United Nations, International and UK.

Robbo Ranx

Roger Robinson, better known as Robbo Ranx, is a UK dancehall and reggae DJ.

Robbo Ranx early introduction to music was through the Tippertone sound system in the late 80's, which he co-founded with a school friend. In 1989 he set up the record label Musik Street, recording and releasing tracks by artists such as General Levy, Sweetie Irie, Chuckie Star, Bobo General, Junior Dan and Jack Radics between 1989 and 1996.

In 1994 he helped to form Skyline FM, a pirate radio station in west London. The success of the station led to Robbo Ranx hosting Unique FM's The Street Experience, a weekly show reflecting the reggae music scene. In 2000, he left the pirate radio scene and joined Choice FM to host a weekly reggae dancehall show.

In 1998, Ranx took Dancehall to London’s west and held down an 11-year residency with his weekly ‘Uptown Splurt’ parties at Cameo’s Nights Club. After a short spell on London's Choice FM, in 2002 Robbo Ranx joined BBC Radio 1Xtra a digital radio station that was launched on the DAB Digital Radio platform. He hosted the 'Dancehall Splurt' radio show twice a week. In 2004, he won two Sony Radio Academy Awards for his weekly radio show and 1Xtra's broadcast of Sting 2003, one Jamaica's biggest dancehall festival. He left 1Xtra in 2014 and launched his own online radio network Robbo Ranx Radio in October 2014.

Robin Catto

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Rudi Page

Rudi Page, FRSA is a multi-award winning management consultant (mentor & coach) and skilled facilitator with a proven track record of achievement within the NHS and Royal Colleges, senior appointments, workforce development & Inclusion, local systems and patient & public engagement. He developed the widely-acclaimed Diaspora Delivery System and is the co-founder of Caribbean Diaspora Health System +.

Rudi has extensive experience in making connections work for all stakeholders through cross-sectoral and institutional development partnerships within business support, community development, corporate social responsibility, creative industries, higher education, regeneration and the commonwealth diaspora movement, aligned with UK global health and international trade objectives.

Rudi has held non-executive and trustee roles for North West London Community Foundation, North West London Chamber of Commerce, RAFFA International Development Agency and Vice-Chairman, Talawa Theatre, and an active member of the Lions Club and Kiwanis International charities.

Rudi continues to carry out his life's mandate to effect change by promoting inclusive, peaceful, caring and enterprising neighbourhoods.

Ruth Austin

The Diabetes UK Brent group is one of over 300 voluntary groups situated throughout the UK. Our goal is to raise awareness of diabetes within Brent and provide support and education for people living with diabetes, as well as their family, friends and anyone else who is interested in knowing more about diabetes.