I am a 32 year-old that regrets not getting on very well with my English teacher.

 

Born in Bromsgrove, but spending the vast majority of my early life in The Black Country, I never really enjoyed school, and found myself following a professional path that matched my skill-set, rather than a particular desire to be successful in the business-to-business world.

However, while I wasn't particularly doing something I was passionate about, my progress meant that I had a very healthy work-life balance, and as a married man with a young family, we really didn't want for much.

Sadly in 2005 my wonderful wife, Samantha, died suddenly from a heart problem. Our only child was just seven-months-old, and it instantly became clear to me that perhaps my work ethic, as well as many other things, needed to change.

So from that point, as well as rebuilding a new life and providing a stable environment for our son to grow in, I have sought work in a field that I find rewarding in more than just pay. I did consider life as a helicopter pilot, but my boy was not very keen on that idea, and practically it was never going to fit in with being a full-time, hands-on dad.

After completing a distance learning course with the London School of Journalism, I set about my network of contacts to see who I could unearth to perhaps offer some guidance and assistance in this new field.

Whether it was my situation, or natural charm (ok, it was totally my situation), I quickly found people that were very helpful and able to point me in the right direction.

That guidance included to start blogging, sold as the perfect place to write, without the pressure of a deadline, and on a subject of choice rather than of direction. I will be forever grateful to Lucy Jolin for that suggestion. Because of it I have an electronic record of how I felt, and what actually happened while we self-built a new home, itself a significant stage in the structuring of a new life for my son and me.

Blogging about my experience as a single parent dad has been, and continues to be, enjoyable, therapeutic, as well being beneficial in terms of being sent writing opportunities with companies including Disney, Skoda, Butlins and Dyson.

In the last four years I have written many first person pieces for people such as the BBC, Practical Parenting, and LOOK magazine.

For the last three football seasons I have also been taking on various writing tasks from my favourite football club, Walsall FC. This year I have been compiling a round-up of all the action from their league, having previously been interviewing players and coaching staff.

Other works have been varied; professional blog posts, reviews, opinion pieces, sales promotion and re-writing articles for different audiences.

But anyway, that's my past, and I very much hope to be part of your future.