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I was born in the old Staincliffe Hospital on Halifax Road in the early 1970s. Staincliffe is part of Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

Before I began volunteering for HWD Hospital Radio, I made a couple of return trips to the hospital when I fell through a glass door at home and after putting a fork through my foot while trying to help my mum in the garden at the age of about nine. I can still see myself standing at the flower bed with the blood leaking from my foot.

My earliest memory of Norristhorpe Junior and Infant School is walking from home up Norristhorpe Lane in the middle of winter with a huge snowdrift on either side of the road. I seem to remember being disappointed that every other school in the area was closed but we had to learn maths instead of how to make snowmen. I can also recall having my photograph taken in a smart blue suit on hot summer's day on the grass outside the new section of the school.

I regularly drive past Heckmondwike Grammar School where I attended between the ages of 11 and 18. It's changed massively since I left in 1989 clutching four A-levels and nine O-levels. If you went to HGS, I was in Bronte house and the "Y" form.

I was looking forward to a summer of leisure but was lucky enough to get a part-time job working for the Automobile Association doing their traffic reports on the local radio stations in Yorkshire. People still mimic the outcue "Stuart Barrett, AA Roadwatch" - I suppose that shows the power of radio. It was very helpful though when I wrote to BBC Radio Leeds asking for some weekend work.

I started doing some weekend shifts for BBC Radio Leeds, answering the phones for Alvin Blossom on a Saturday and (when I was old enough to drive) taking the radio car to sports events such as Wakefield rugby union matches at College Grove and Castleford's rugby league games at Wheldon Road.

After a couple of years at BBC Radio Leeds, I was asked to work on the new night-time sequence of programmes networked across Yorkshire and the North East. I had the pleasure of being the production assistant on the Late Martin Kelner Show which usually meant going to the local kebab shop to get Martin something to eat, answering the phones and pretending to laugh at Martin's age-old jokes (that's one of the biggest challenges I've faced so far!). He would say with jokes from the 30s and music from the 60s, it was radio for the 90s!

BBC Radio York were looking for someone to get them out of a tight spot one Saturday afternoon working as the technical assistant on North Yorkshire Sport - I offered to help and then worked with Alastair Yeomans and the sports team every Saturday afternoon and most Sundays for three years. I also covered the presentation of the sports programmes when Alastair was on leave.

Having got some experience in front of the mic, I started to front the travel news for BBC Radio Leeds - after a while that role was advertised and I was lucky enough to get the job in about 1993. When I'd been there for a bit longer I cheekily asked if I could stand in on the Saturday Early Show and, after a bit of persuasion, they agreed.

I left Leeds and went to work in London in 1998 - it was a superb experience to work in Broadcasting House (and later Television Centre). There was something strange about seeing national TV and radio personalities just walking along the corridors minding their own business - not to mention walking past the likes of the Blue Peter appeal totaliser and the fridge for the Lotto staff in the scene dock at Television Centre!

I came back to Leeds in 1999 as one of the researchers on the Peter Levy Show on BBC Radio Leeds. Soon after I was invited to apply for a job working behind the scenes on BBC Look North, firstly in the subtitling department and most recently in gallery. I call the job counting backwards but the official title is News Transmission Assistant (or NTA).

There was a change of management at BBC Radio Leeds in 2004 and in May of that year a new job was advertised as Station Sound Producer. It involved making the imaging for the station as well as working on trails for programmes and giving BBC Radio Leeds a new, more rounded sound. I applied and was delighted to be offered the job in June 2004.

As part of my Station Sound job, I also presented a weekly programme in the early hours of Saturday morning. Glitterball, broadcast between 0100 and 0300, played great songs from the 1970s and 1980s. As well as Glitterball, I was also in charge of the studio production and presentation for the Saturday edition of West Yorkshire Sport on BBC Radio Leeds.

In March 2006 I was given the chance of a six-month secondment to the BBC in Manchester where the local radio station for Greater Manchester, BBC GMR, was under new management and was going back to its original on air name of BBC Radio Manchester. My job was to work with the existing Station Sound Producer, Kate Dinsdale, and Managing Editor, John Ryan, to create a new contemporary sound for the station. The first phase of the process involved a trip to Seattle to work with the team at IQ Beats on a new jingle package then take those workparts and turn them into a complete imaging toolkit for the new BBC Radio Manchester. You can hear the results on the air on 95.1FM in Greater Manchester or online at the BBC Radio Manchester website.

When Kate left BBC Radio Manchester in October 2006, I was appointed the full-time Station Sound Producer at BBC Radio Manchester. This involves not only the imaging and trails but also the management of several systems used to keep the station on the air as well as music scheduling and some on-air presentation (and seemingly working all bank holidays as well!!).