Alex: Today, we’ll hear the remarkable story of how one man relied on his wits – and his defiant sense of humour – in the face of double discrimination.

Mark: I just became very resilient and I realised I had the power to decide on things that I could let affect me or could impact on me. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I've got some kind of ironclad mind {laughs} whereby things don't impact me. But I've learned over the years just to let certain things go.

Alex: This is Mark Esho.

Mark: I'm 59 – 60 next year; I’ve got the big 6-0. I'm a company director.

Alex: In fact, Mark is a serial entrepreneur: he runs two businesses and a social enterprise that promotes disability access and awareness.

When Mark was five, he contracted polio, leaving him paralysed from the neck down. He was given a 10% chance of survival. In the face of those odds, Mark went on to regain partial mobility. He now uses a wheelchair and gives motivational talks, including speaking to companies about the benefits of employing people with disabilities.

Mark’s parents are from Nigeria. They were studying in Leicester, when they had Mark.

Mark: From the age of six months, I lived with a private fostering family.

Alex: Mark grew up in a small village just outside Leicester – he had a relatively happy childhood there.

Mark: I had a very protective family around me. I had foster brothers, foster sisters. It was a small village; everyone knew each other within the village. So any time that I'd actually suffered any sort of racism that I can remember was from people outside of the village.

Alex: If Mark was subjected to racist abuse or taunts, his big brother would come to his defence.

Mark: Yeah he was exceptionally protective.

Alex: Mark moved to Nigeria when he was nine. He returned to the UK aged 18, and studied at Leicester College, before moving to London. Disability access back then was really poor. Despite this, Mark got his A-levels, and later an MBA.

Mark: Well back in the 80s a lot of black people felt that they didn't have any rights.

You often felt like a second..I guess… like a second class citizen. And you'd try to avoid places where [it] was all white.

Despite the fact that you know, being a British citizen, and having the right to live in the UK, it felt like you weren't wanted.

A lot of it was being fearful of the police. Because, you know, constantly being stopped by the police for whatever reason. And the only crime was driving while black.

Alex: Racist abuse and racial profiling happened to Mark so often, that he developed a way of dealing with it.

Mark: This is something that happens, on a regular basis, so you just tend to brush it off. And you don't want to dwell too much into those emotions. Because if you let it affect you, it then impacts on everything else around you, it just makes you angry, makes you sad.

Alex: Mark faced both racial discrimination and disability discrimination. He was forced to become really resilient.

Mark: I realised I had the power to decide on things that I could let affect me or could impact on me. You know don't get me wrong, it's not like I've got some kind of ironclad mind whereby things don't impact me. But I've learned over the years just to let certain things go because otherwise it… you know, it can be damaging to your mental health.

Alex: And usually Mark was able to do this. But there’s one incident from his past -- that sticks with him to this day.

Mark was 20. He had been given social housing in Barnet, north London.

Mark: And the day I moved in, the gentleman next door to me, actually turned around and said to me that the likes of you are not wanted here. And I'm going to be keeping an eye on you.

Alex: This was a big white guy - six foot three - he towered over Mark.

Two weeks later, the neighbour repeated his threat.

Mark: I subsequently found out that he was a part time policeman. And he actually had a shotgun on his shoulder. Actually saying, that, you know, I don't want the likes of you here. This is a quiet neighbourhood and these are decent people.

Alex: Mark did the only thing he could: he looked away and ignored the man.

Mark: A couple of months later, I had a knock on the door, said Who is it? “It’s the police. Open the door. We've got a search warrant because we've been told that you, that you're selling drugs”. {laughs}

And they started to - lo and behold - they came in, searched the whole apartment. Obviously I had no drugs.

Alex: The police left. The next day, Mark went to the station and demanded they tell him, who had reported him. The police refused.

Mark: I said, is it the guy next door? “Sir we can't tell you that.” So I said to them, can I lodge a complaint? “No, you can't.” And I just had to leave it.

I was being discriminated against. I was being victimised. But then despite that, the police would actually give me no support whatsoever. That kind of even today really annoys me and saddens me.

Alex: For Mark, the emotions brought up by racial harassment weren’t always straightforward.

One evening Mark was meeting Doyin, an old school friend from Nigeria who at that point was a law student. It was mid-1980s Edgware, and the pair were off to a busy local pub for a pint.

Mark: We noticed the moment we walked in that everyone was staring at us, but we thought you know, that's just normal. Went to the bar, ordered the drinks. And there were these three guys behind us. And really looking at us, quite menacingly, you know, really aggressively.

Alex: But Mark and Doyin thought: whatever, let’s just ignore them and try to enjoy our beer.

Mark: These guys, their eyes followed us. I felt their eyes still on us.

Mark: We obviously, we felt the negative energy, we felt the negative vibes but decided to ignore it as you know, as you do. It was a very hostile environment. So let's, you know, let's drink up quick. You know, at least have our drink.

Alex: As it turned out, Mark and his mate were only able to take a few sips of their drinks.

Mark: Next thing we knew, is that we're being grabbed by the scruff of our necks.

One of them got up, came behind us, held us by our collars. And said, are you guys ok? We said Yeah, we're okay thanks. No, he said, really? Are you really okay? Yeah yeah, we're fine. And said, No, I don't think you heard me. Are you really, really ok? I think you need to go now. And I think that's when we got the message. So basically, we didn't finish our drinks.

It's almost like he was questioning our logic to be there. Our motivation to be there, that you know, how stupid could you be to to actually walk into this pub, that sort of thing. So therefore, you can't be alright, or you can't be a sound mind.

Alex: Mark and Doyin were shocked. They had been to this pub a few times before – played pool there without any issues. The pub was predominantly white - but they’d thought it was safe.

Then they noticed that the pub landlord had walked away.

Mark: He saw it and just turned his back. And that's when we knew that okay, this is not good. Because he saw it looked up, saw it and then and then moved away it moved to the end of the bar. And that's what other people in the pub obviously saw it as well, but just didn't react

Alex: Mark and Doyin left their pints on the bar, and walked straight out of the pub.

To me, this encounter sounds terrifying. But Mark and Doyin……. had a surprising reaction.

Mark: We laughed about it. We just thought he was so funny. And we told everyone else what happened. It was a frightening experience. But we kind of laughed about it.

It was the fact that we thought it was funny that we got kicked out.

We joked; we joked to people, say to people, that we inadvertently walked into a National Front meeting.

So that was our joke that we walked into National Front pub, you know, we didn't know… two black guys, and next thing you know we’re being marched out {laughs}

It kind of just helped us release the tension and kind of remove the pain or the experience as you would say.

It’s just one of those things; what do you do, you know, if you try to internalise it too much you get upset so we just laughed about it and we still laugh about it you know for many years afterwards when we tell people you know, this is what happened.

Alex: Mark has grit and grace – he found it in himself to laugh about the absurd, racist behaviour of these white men. But the incident – and others like them – did have an effect.

Mark: Personally for me, I'm always a bit wary of pubs that I don't know. and it's been like that ever since that incident that I'm a bit cautious, a bit apprehensive about pubs that I don't know. I’m very apprehensive about pubs in all white areas.

Alex: Mark says there’s still a lot of discrimination -- both unconscious bias and overt racism.

Mark: A lot of ethnic minorities still don't feel completely safe, and feel – and feel threatened in certain environments or could feel threatened in certain environments.

Alex: Mark’s own experiences inspired him to write a book about racism and resilience. It’s called I Can, I Will. And it details his incredible life path, from challenging beginnings facing abuse, disability and racial discrimination. Through his role working for a charity, launching several businesses and winning awards. Mark shows his characteristic humour and determination in the face of adversity.