That's why Alex (17 years old) ran away from his mother

His mother lived an isolated Bedouin life with her father, and his grandmother was in charge of custody. In 2017, the 11-year-old visited his mother in Spain. But she didn't let him go.

Alex says she's a conspiracy theorist. She refuses vaccinations and the state. She didn't want him to go back to England and go to school there. Because there he will become a “slave of the system.”

She doesn't allow any other opinion, is how Alex describes his mother. She's a great person, and he loves her, “but she's not a great mother.”

For six years, the boy traveled through the mountains with his mother and grandfather, from vacation home to vacation home. They had almost no money, so they did small jobs to get food.

Alex becomes increasingly dissatisfied with these circumstances. An argument with his mother was the straw that broke the camel's back in mid-December, and he ran away.

He snuck out at night. He had some clothes in his bag, a flashlight, some money, a pocket knife, and his skateboard. His destination was Toulouse, the next largest city, then England.

After two days of hiking, the delivery man picked him up in the pouring rain. He asked him to call his grandmother and later took him to the police station.

“Moving around, no friends, no social life, working and working and not studying.” That's how Alex describes it. “This is the life I would have imagined if I had stayed with my mother. In the mountains, in the middle of nowhere.”

Now he wants to go back to school in England. His goal is to study computer science, cybersecurity or blockchain development. Alex Batey: “I will study hard and catch up with everything.”