About me
I'm
a self-confessed news junkie! Born in Whitby, North Yorkshire back in
1979 I spent my first 18 years growing up by the seaside. It's probably during
that time I had my love of current affairs drummed into me by my gran who
brought me up on a diet of every TV news programme one after the other, not
to mention the odd Prime Minister's Questions for a treat!
Whitby is the sort of place that everyone has either heard of or visited. It never ceases to amaze me how many Whitby anecdotes I get when I tell people where I grew up. I used to find this strange but now I think it's better than coming from a conversation killer like Milton Keynes.
After completing my GCSEs and A levels I went on to complete a Bachelor of Broadcasting degree and since then have worked as a broadcast journalist. For six years I lived in Leeds in West Yorkshire where I worked for Real Radio as a newsreader and reporter. In November 2008 I moved to Manchester where I was by then working as a news presenter, reporter and producer for the now largely mothballed local TV station Channel M which broadcast on terrestrial, cable and satellite. After leaving Channel M I returned to Leeds to work for ITV Yorkshire on their regional news programme Calendar.
In my spare time I help to organise a twice-yearly Scout competition called the Apex Challenge. It is run by myself and two friends as a charity in its own right. Hundreds of young people come along each year and complete adventurous activities for a chance of going away with some impressive prizes.
I am also an amateur web designer and enjoy learning more about developing sites. Since I started I have designed three or four, mainly for friends.
Where next? Who knows! I'm a great believer in fate. After starting work as a freelance journalist in the Spring of 2010 it felt like I was moving into a new and potentially very exciting chapter in my life which I hope will prove just as happy and fulfilling as the previous ones. I still have many unfulfilled ambitions and right now I'm ready to grasp those opportunities and go wherever life takes me!