Inside MOBO founder Kanya King's inspirational journey to fame after dropping out of school aged 16 as a single mother - as she reveals terminal bowel cancer diagnosis

From dropping out of school aged just 16 to founding her groundbreaking awards ceremony, MOBO Awards founder Kanya King has lived a life nothing short of inspirational. It's no surprise, then, that her recent diagnosis of terminal bowel cancer has been a hard pill to swallow for fans of the stunning mogul, known best for founding the first ever British award of black origin - a prestigious annual event which celebrates black music in and out of the UK.

Established in 1996, it was a launchpad for the hottest names in music eager for a British audience, and saw the likes of Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Destiny's Child and Victoria Beckham grace the stage during its very first edition. Almost three decades later and with too many awards to list - including a CBE in 2018 and a Live Awards lifetime achievement prize this week - Kanya, 55, admits the stage four illness was 'something I never saw coming'.

But her touching Instagram message was also a show of pride and how 'deeply' she has lived, as the trailblazer's story is one of excellence, having broken down doors for women, people of colour and innovators. Kanya has long spoken of a time when uplifting the black community was her main resolve, and a major part of that mission was to ensure black British music was a force to be reckoned with. Her dedication was borne out of both circumstance and hope, having been born to a Ghanaian father and an Irish mother - who was shunned by her very own family.

Her early experiences of racism have threaded through her tenacious career, making her the successful entrepreneur she is today. In December, MOBO Awards founder Kanya King revealed her shock bowel cancer diagnosis (Pictured: Kanya King celebrates the MOBOs 25th anniversary in 2022). It all began in 1969. Kanya grew up in a small council flat in Kilburn, north-west London, the youngest of nine children.

She experienced tragedy very early, spending not much more than a decade with her father, Christian Ocloo, who passed away when she was 13. Though their time together was short, Kanya vividly remembers the 'many inequalities' her father endured. 'My father had a strong African accent, he struggled to get a job,' she told Music Week in 2021. 'There was no kind of pride, you’d watch things at Christmas time, like Zulu, and the images of Africans were of savages – the very opposite [of reality]. My father was very elegant'.

This experience would be the catalyst a young Kanya needed to place black British excellence on a global map - as well as a life changing event that lurked around the corner. After the passing of her father, the onus of Kanya and her siblings' survival fell on her mother, who worked single-handedly to take care of her children and put food on the table. All the while, Kanya tried her best to navigate her teenage years while pestered with questions about growing up in a black and white household, she revealed to the London Evening Standard.

She founded the first ever British award of black origin (MOBO Awards) - a prestigious annual event which celebrates black music in and out of the UK (Pictured: David and Victoria Beckham attend the ceremony in 1999). Kanya had just begun the final stages of secondary school and was preparing to take her GCSEs. But this wasn't to be as she soon learned she was pregnant aged just 16. The promise of motherhood meant she would have to drop out of school, made worse by a break-up with her child's father.

Kanya recalled being told her she would never amount to more than a Sainsbury's manager by a careers advisor at school. Speaking to the Standard in 2017, she said: 'I felt that, when I became a parent, I was kind of written off, that I wasn’t going to amount to much. That put a fire in my belly and gave me the motivation to say "Why should I not have ambition, little is expected of me?"'. Never the one to honour expectations, she immediately got to work, taking on jobs as a freelance TV researcher and Radio 2 producer, while juggling studies at Goldsmiths College - once attended by Princess Beatrice - in London.

Established in 1996, the MOBOs was a launchpad for the hottest names in music eager for a British audience, and saw the likes of Destiny's Child grace the stage of its very first editions (Pictured left to right - LeToya Luckett, Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland and LaTavia Roberson take home the MOBO Award for Best International R&B Act in 1999 at the Royal Albert Hall, London). Kanya's accomplishments in music and culture are lengthy. Here she is seen with Queen Camilla during the Royal's visit to London domestic violence charity, STORM, as it marked its 19th anniversary in February 2023.

Her passion was illuminated in the arts and entertainment - despite her mother's yearnings for her to teach - and the studious worker quickly made contacts in these fields. While attending an Arsenal event, Kanya bagged a once-in-a-lifetime meeting with the boss of London Weekend Television, and the rest is history. She took her best shot and pitched her dream - to launch the Black Music Awards, a ceremony praising the industry's crème de la crème, while using the same spotlight to raise awareness for British rising stars.