THE inspirational story of how a young man turned his life around with help from a Keighley and Bradford-based education charity has been turned into a short film.

The film features the experiences of Mohammed Shakeel – known as Shak – and it promotes the work done by the JAMES (Joint Activities and Motor Education Service) Project.

The charity has its Keighley premises at the junction of Queens Road and South Street and also has bases in Shipley, Frizinghall and Holme Wood.

Its film was produced late last year and is due to be released on JAMES Project's social media channels from January15.

It portrays Shak's journey from heading towards a potentially troubled life to getting involved with JAMES, which works with young people on a variety of alternative education programmes.

At JAMES Shak benefited from the support of a mentor called Jagger, and took part in the vehicle-based training that JAMES provides to give young people a new purpose in their lives.

As Shak explains in the film: "With Jagger I learned a lot. I learned about mechanics, I learned about self respect, I learned about having respect for other people and elders.

"You can't just expect to take and not give, you have to give something back to get somewhere and that's what JAMES taught me."

Shak is now a qualified mechanic and he even met the woman who has become his wife while training at JAMES.

He added: "I walk into JAMES and it's like home. I walk in, everyone knows your name, everybody knows who you are.

"It's about somebody being behind you saying 'you can do it', instead of someone saying you can't. JAMES tell you that you can do whatever you put your mind to."

Shak is now giving back to the charity by helping to teach the new generation of young people passing through its doors.

Anna Shepherd, development manager, at the charity, said she and her colleagues were delighted with the short film.

She said: "We've shown it to Shak and he's really proud that his time at JAMES is now hopefully going to inspire other young people.

"This film was made because we recognised that social media and online content was a good area for us to develop, and a way of linking up with young people.

"We wanted to showcase what we do, which is engage with young people who have low aspirations and don't have a great game plan for their lives.

"We didn't want the film to be too long. We needed something short and to-the-point, sending out the message, 'this is what you can achieve with hard work and effort.'

"We're really chuffed with the film and hope many people will view and share it."