Sir Mo Farah had a difficult childhood before making history as an Olympic hero and becoming one of Britain's most celebrated athletes.
In an upcoming BBC documentary, The Real Mo Farah, the long-distance runner bravely opens up about his harrowing upbringing after being brought the UK illegally as a child at the age of nine.
From there, Sir Mo was forced to work as a domestic servant and changed his name, having previously been born Hussein Abdi Kahin in Somaliland.
But what was life really like for Sir Mo? Here, we look into the running star's heartbreaking past and how he managed to turn his life around for the better.
Growing up
The astonishing details are revealed in a BBC documentary, where Sir Mo talks openly about his difficult past.
His father, Abdi, was killed by stray gunfire during the Somali civil war in the 1980s - when the running star was four years old.
Following his father's death, his mother made the decision to send Mo and his twin brother Hassan to live with an uncle in neighbouring Djibouti on the Horn of Africa.
Sir Mo recalls being around eight or nine at the time.
He was then flown over to the UK by a woman he had never met and wasn't related to.
Working as a servant
Sir Mo was brought to the UK using false documents to work in domestic servant for a family with younger children.
The woman who brought him in, in 1993, pretended to be his mum.
Shortly after arriving in London, the woman took him to her flat in Hounslow, West London.
The athlete details the domestic housework and childcare he was forced to do in order to survive, including cleaning and cooking.
Sir Mo claims the woman – who did not respond to requests to appear in the documentary – also verbally threatened him.
Sir Mo says: "If I wanted food in my mouth my job was to look after those kids, shower them, cook for them, clean for them, and she said, ‘If you ever wanna see your family again, don’t say anything’.
"Often I would just lock myself in the bathroom and cry."
School struggles
Two years are landing in the UK, Sir Mo went on to attend Feltham Community College in South West London.
The Olympian, who was 11 years old at the time, struggled to fit into school life and battled "incredible behaviour difficulties".
Form tutor Sarah Rennie says in the documentary: "We needed to speak to somebody, but Mo’s family never turned up. He was unkempt, uncared for and we were worried."
As a result, the youngster turned to running to help cope with his struggles and was helped by PE teacher Alan Watkinson.
Alan says: "Mo told me he wasn’t the son of the person he was living with – that his name wasn’t Mohamed Farah, [and that] he was removed from his family, that he was given a new identity and brought here to do jobs and chores. That was quite shocking to hear."
'The real Mo'
Thankfully, social services helped Mo to be fostered by another Somalian family.
Kinsi, the mum of a Somali schoolfriend, agreed to take him in for seven years.
Alan recalls this time as heralding a "remarkable transformation", saying: "We’d had good runners before but the progress from there was stratospheric."
Meanwhile, Mo adds: "I still missed my real family, but from that moment everything got better.
"I felt like a lot of stuff was lifted off my shoulders, and I felt like me. That's when Mo came out - the real Mo."
* The Real Mo Farah airs on BBC1 at 9pm on Wednesday 13 July.
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