Genieveve Augustine is the mother of two professional sportsmen and has a daughter who is an actress and dancer. But now that her child-rearing days are over the former model from Huddersfield has launched a new enterprise to help single people find love and friendship. HILARIE STELFOX reports

AFTER spending her 20s and 30s taking her three children to ballet lessons, sports clubs and more out of school activities than most, Genieveve Augustine is a woman with a new mission in life.

But now they have grown up the 46-year-old from Scammonden is throwing her energies into something entirely different.

It started as a joint enterprise with friends but Genieveve has ended up going it alone, bringing her own brand of speed-dating for singletons to the Huddersfield area.

Genieveve, whose youngest son, 23-year-old Lucas-Jordan Akins – known as LJ – is a professional footballer who plays for Tranmere Rovers, says she was totally focussed on raising her children.

She married young, giving up a modelling career with the Louise Morton agency in order fulfil her desire to have a family.

It was a decision she says she never regretted and threw herself wholeheartedly into helping her children reach their potential.

Today her elder son, 24-year-old Nathaniel, plays basketball for the Sheffield Sharks and her 26-year-old daughter, Claudia, is a trained dancer and television extra.

Genieveve has instilled in all of them a strong work ethic and ‘can do’ attitude. The fact that they have been so successful is testament to the time and energy she invested in their upbringing. “I helped them fulfil their dreams and now they are right behind me,” she said. Genieveve, who came to Yorkshire from the West Indies when she was four, was raised in the Marsh area and has an eclectic CV ranging from modelling and hairdressing to working in schools and local government.

She is also a life coach and stylist – last year she was called upon to work on the Mary Portas programme, Mary Queen of Frocks, styling women over 40.