BHA, formerly The Black Health Agency is a wonderful organisation doing great work in the Manchester area. For a number of years now, it has been my great pleasure to be a Patron of BHA, helping out wherever I can.

After the Commonwealth Games in Manchester back in 2002, I applied for and got the job as Assistant Editor at BBC Radio Manchester. It was truly a joyous time for me to be in that position under the Editorship of Steve Taylor.

Having attended the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada and taken part in the 2002 Games in Manchester, I suggested to my boss at BBC Radio Manchester that we should claim the Games wherever they were in the world and that we should always send a reporter. He thought it was a great idea and selected me to go to Melbourne, Australia for the 2006 Games.

2002 was a joyous time in Manchester and for me in particular. I had the great pleasure of hosting the Prelude to the Opening and Closing Ceremonies at the then City of Manchester Stadium. I have to say, "it don't get no better than that."

Back in 1994, I won a bursary to visit the Commonwealth Games in Victoria Canada. My winning pitch for the bursary was to see how the games were put together and how they were covered by the media, so that if the Games ever came to Manchester, I would know what was required.

Every once in a while something really spectacular happens. One of these was my appearance on Coronation Street. When I was first contacted I thought it was someone taking the mickey. It wasn't!

While working in Commercial Radio, I couldn't understand why there were no Community Radio Stations or Specialist Radio Stations. I began a 10 year long campaign to make it happen. In 1989 after a number of false starts, Sunset Radio blasted on to the airwaves of Manchester.

Back in the day, I wrote to the BBC 1 Television programme 'Open Air' trying to get them to do a feature on the lack of black people on British television. It took some time and discussion but we eventually got it done. After the programme I was told that if anything ever came up they would be in touch. Eventually something did and they got in touch.

Well back in 1978, I opened a National Newspaper to read that Andy Peebles was leaving Piccadilly Radio to go to Radio 1. This was the chance I'd been waiting for. Within 45 minutes I was at the station making my case. Eventually I landed my dream job