Heather Bellamy spoke with Mike McDade

Mike McDade

Growing up in a broken home, Mike McDade decided he wanted to be rich and found his own dubious way of achieving this. Despite leaving school with no qualifications and living on the streets, he had a Rolls Royce, a large house and holiday homes, yet left behind his flash lifestyle to become a Baptist minister. Mike has served in Bradford, Warrington (at the time of the IRA bomb attack), London and Cambridge and in each of these places he has left a deep impression. With the release of his biography Runaway, Red Beret, And Reverend, Heather Bellamy spent some time with him to find out more.

Heather: In part one of this interview you said that you were homeless for three years. What happened when you were 17?

Mike: Well, life changed again and a different path was taken. When I was working on Blackpool Tower I met someone who had recently come out of the army and they painted a wonderful picture of army life; so I decided that perhaps this is somewhere where I can go and at last find myself belonging somewhere and with other people. I decided that I would try and see what happened. I went off to the recruiting office and spoke to the sergeant who was there and decided I was going to be an officer; I wasn't just going to be an ordinary soldier, but soon discovered that that was not going to happen. The reasons why are in the book and I won't disclose that because it's a very interesting thing that took place. I became a soldier and I ended up serving in the 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment. I was a Paratrooper, the elite, the red beret and everything else; but getting there was a journey in itself and the book speaks about parts of the journey of that, because I actually believe that my life was in such chaos at that particular time, that if I didn't take that road to joining the army I would have probably ended up in prison or worse, dead.

Heather: So it did you a lot of good joining the army?

Mike: It did me a lot of good and it reinforced values; it reinforced the things that I was involved in and doing. Some sort of discipline was installed as well. It helped me tremendously.

Heather: How long were you in the army for?

Mike: Three years.

Heather: And so what happened when you came out?

Mike: When I came out I met Pat and we got married. I met her and proposed to her all within a week. She thought that I was absolutely stupid and mad. Six months later we were married and nearly 43 years later we are still very happy together.

I haven't spoken about this yet, but as a child I had this desire to be rich; not understanding what rich was. That desire never left me and it travelled with me once I came out of the army. I got a job working for Fyffe's the banana people in their wholesale division at Covent Garden when Covent Garden was a fruit and veg market and not what it is today. I soon discovered that there were many other things that were on sale apart from fruit and veg. These things were, I think the word is, they fell off the back of a lorry; you can understand what I mean I hope. Other people were selling all this stuff and making lots of money and I thought to myself, well I could do this; I could make lots of money. That's what I did. I ended up being involved in selling all manner of things and I then began to accumulate some money, some cash, which I'd never had before. I could do things, which I couldn't do before. I could go into a restaurant, look down the wine list; I couldn't pronounce the wine but because it was expensive I could say I'll have a bottle of that wine and point to it hoping that these people would think, oh he's got a few bob; he must be someone special and perhaps that's what I always wanted, for other people to think that I was someone special.

Mike McDade with Terry Waite

Heather: Did the finance bring you happiness or did you find it was empty; it wasn't what you thought it would be?

Mike: In the beginning it brought me a lot of happiness. It brought some nice holidays; I ended up starting up my own companies. I had several companies; by then I was driving around in a Rolls Royce. I lived in a five bedroomed house in West London. I had a town house in Bognor by the sea and of course I had the flat in Spain, because everyone has a flat in Spain don't they? Life was pretty rosy and I was enjoying life. Also I purchased a fruit and veg shop, because I thought, well I'm selling it wholesale, I could get Pat working in the shop and I can earn more money because I can give her all the stuff free. It was all about money.

Heather: How did you come to know Jesus for yourself?

Mike: It's an extraordinary story and sometimes I can't believe it myself. I mentioned that we had bought a shop and that my wife was working in the shop. One particular afternoon I came home and she said, you never guess what; we've had some TV personalities in the shop. I said, well who? She said it was someone off Blue Peter. I said, Blue Peter and she said, yes. Do you remember watching the programme with our kids a little while ago and there was a lady on there and they went through her pregnancy and her name was Tina Heath? And I said yes. She said she's just been in the shop; very nice and in fact I met her a couple days later. Then I discovered her husband was actually a keyboard player and at that particular time was in Australia playing the keyboard for Cliff Richard. So of course next day I told everybody my best friend was Cliff Richard; not that they believed me but I thought that I would boast a bit.