Growing Business Young Gun and Great Guns Marketing founder Liz Jackson will star in Channel 4’s the Secret Millionaire this week.
The 2004 Young Gun will appear in the first of a new series of the show, which sees successful entrepreneurs go undercover to identify organisations or individuals in need of their financial assistance.
Jackson spent eight days living in South London, working with people who are living with disabilities and financial difficulties and helping others to overcome similar problems, before donating thousands of pounds of her own money.
The 36-year-old entrepreneur suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, where gradual degeneration of the retina causes loss of vision. Jackson lost her sight completely 10 years ago, within a year of setting up telemarketing firm Great Guns. However, she has remained determined not to let this limit or define her.
Great Guns, which was started with a £4,000 loan and £1,000 grant from the Prince's Trust, now turns over £2.5m a year, employs 130 people and works with a number of corporate clients, including PricewaterhouseCoopers and PayPal.
Jackson said filming the show took her completely out of her comfort zone, but left her feeling inspired and re-energised.
She told Growing Business: “It was amazing. I found it an incredibly inspiring thing to do, to meet people who gave up their time to serve others, and got such a huge buzz out of it.
“Doing that programme really brings perspective to everything, and it was a very humbling exercise. I’d recommend it. In fact, I think that you should have to give the money out but you should also have to pay to do it because it’s such an amazing development opportunity for any entrepreneur.”
She added that maintaining her cover and being apart from her two-year-old daughter for the first time were far more daunting than the thought of being on television.
“To start with you feel a little bit uncomfortable with the camera, but by the end you stop caring about it. It’s nothing compared to the pressure of taking on another persona and not giving the game away, yet having to constantly question people to find out whether you want to be involved with their charities.”
Liz Jackson's episode of the Secret Millionaire will air on Wednesday 16 September at 9pm on Channel 4.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2009