I was born in Doncaster in 1960 - so that makes me at least 50 years young! I attended The Holy Family Primary School in Stainforth, then St Peters Secondary School, before finishing my formal education at the Catherine McCauley Upper School iin 1978.

I started work almost as soon as I had left school as a student with the Signalling & Telecommunications Dept. of British Rail, based first of all in Doncaster, but with my home station in York. Despite many changes in company name, I effectively still do the same job after 31 years, now working for Invensys. I love what I do, which is level crossings, and I consider myself very lucky to be in a job that is so rewarding.

I had always been interested in music and decided to further my eduction by taking an Open University degree, much of which was centred on music. I absolutely loved it -I learned so much but, more importantly, I really enjoyed it too!

I was very also very lucky to be able to go to Lourdes four times with the HCPT (formerly the Handicapped Children's Pilgrimage Trust) between 1997 and 2001, and this really opened up my eyes to many things.

After two periods of ill health in 2001 and then 2004, I decided to re-evaluate my life. This impacted me in many ways. I bought my own house, and I started playing live music again with my friends Mike, Phil, Kev, Lilian and my brother Steve.

Since then, I have moved and improved in many ways. A period of serious ill-health with the diagnosis of a tumour in 2006 didn't get in the way, but forced me to re-evaluate again. Now I am on a journey that continues, and who knows where it will lead?