For Helen Johnson the death of a family friend was the catalyst to re-think her life and make huge changes. And she hasn’t looked back. Mother-of-two Mrs Johnson, 35, was stuck in a rut, working long hours for an Oxford publishing firm, constantly felling stressed and seeing little of her children Megan, four, and Joe, three.

But the sudden death of Joe’s godfather, who was knocked over and killed in London last September, made her take a long hard look at her life.

She said: “I decided I wanted to spend more time with my children and I found the courage to stop doing a job that was making me unhappy.

“By November last year my husband and I had worked out our finances and thought we would be able to cope for a while if I left work to look for something else, so I handed my notice in.

“On the same day that I handed my notice in, my husband Richard came back to say he was going to be made redundant at Christmas.

“This was initially a bit of a shock and obviously a worry in the current climate.”

But Mr Johnson, an accountant, found a new job straight away and his redundancy payment meant the couple had a financial nest-egg.

About the same time, Mrs Johnson had been struggling to find activities for her children to do and came across an under-fives football scheme called Little Kickers.

She made a few enquiries, and a month after leaving work she signed a contract to buy the north Oxfordshire franchise for the firm.

Mrs Johnson, from Bicester, said: “I have not looked back since.

“I was attracted to the Little Kickers programme partly because of the ‘play-not-push’ approach to football training.

“I’m not very competitive myself and felt it was a great way for young children to get an introduction to sports in a friendly non-competitive environment.

“The football classes not only offer a first-class grounding in football basics for your budding David Beckhams, but invaluable social skills such as listening, sharing, taking turns and team-work.”

She said the course was a good introduction to exercise for children and classes were open to boys and girls. Mrs Johnson said: “As a parent myself I worry about the growing health and obesity issues surrounding children as they get older, and anything that can offer my children a fun and gentle introduction to exercise without being too competitive is very important to me.

“I did feel that there was a lack of things to do, particularly for boys under five in our area, and feedback that I have had from other parents suggests the same.”

Classes are held at St Mary’s Primary School, in Queen’s Avenue, Bicester, on Saturday mornings.

Contact: 01869 323186.

E-mail: hjohnson@littlekickers.co.uk