After entering the world in the 1960s, when my parents were living in a caravan on a petrol station forecourt in Selby, I now find myself living aboard a very different kind of metal box, which I have called my home on the Rochdale Canal near Hebden Bridge for the past 15 years. I've lived in Yorkshire all my life, except for a time in Preston and Manchester taking my degree and postgraduate studies.

Despite being an asthmatic child, I have always enjoyed 'sporting adventures' and after 50,000 miles exploring Britain and Europe by bicycle, I decided five years ago that I had done enough, hung up my wheels and took up running after only ever being hopeless at it. I have now run 10,000km and for the past 1,300 days consecutively.

I've always been driven by creativity and am currently lucky enough to be able to make my environmental art and experimental music whilst teaching poetry and creative writing as a freelancer in education and with adult groups and couldn't wish for a more rewarding and varied job.

Michael Symmons Roberts once said that a poet is "a messenger, bringing back bulletins from the edge of experience" and I love visiting those places, whether it's working with the patients of Overgate Hospice (see my poetry film here) working with a mental health charity, or with primary pupils who have extra needs. It's a daily privilege to be a journalist of the emotions and to try and give people a voice to help them express themselves in their words.

Courtesy Hebden Bridge Web