When I was working within the Community Programme and Employment Training programmes in the late 1980s my interest in photography grew and I did various editorial photo assignments for my employers.

This was further helped with a guided tour of the offices of the Northern Echo and I can remember being impressed seeing photos from around the globe appearing on a computer screen before my very eyes.

Right then I knew it was my career of choice. It turned out that one of the other instructors was also a boxing trainer and one of his boxers was in the finals of the Amateur Boxing Association competition.

They used to train is local squash courts and I was asked to take some shots. I was still learning so they were not perfect but they still got used and I actually got paid for my efforts by the free weekly paper the Washington Star – the grand total of seven quid!

Having said that seeing my work in print was pretty good and that feeling has not left me to this day. And I have never looked back since then.