My journey to now - travel, hiking and health.

Growing up on the Wirral, I was always an outdoors boy from an early age. Whether that was playing out after school and at the weekend; football and cricket on the street, chasing each other around in the local woods (which are now all housing estates), riding our bikes to parks a bit further afield or days out walking with my parents and siblings and of course camping, which I have always loved.

I moved to Leeds when I was 20 and stayed there for 13 years, working in record shops. While there and during my first marriage, my experiences in walking with my parents when I was younger became an interest in hiking, regularly going out in the Yorkshire moors and dales with occasional visits to the Lake District.

After the break up of my first marriage, I went travelling around South East Asia - Singapore, Thailand, Laos but the majority of that time I spent in China. I travelled to some incredible locations such as the Great Wall at Simatai and Mutianyu, Zhangjiajie, Zhoujaigou, Huanglong and Guilin/Yangshuo. For most of the time I was there, there were no digital cameras and I used a 35mm Canon Sureshot to take photos with - one future project will be to get these photos scanned and upscaled, now that we have the technology. It was while I was in China that I met my second wife and we moved back to the Wirral so my boys (I have 3) could be near to their grandparents.

Over the following years my interest in hiking gradually became a passion and quite possible even an addiction! With the incredible landscapes I was seeing, I was really inspired to start taking more photos but this was mostly done with smartphone technology. Being such an avid mountain hiker and outdoors person, I took a huge number of photos and posted the better ones on social media such as Facebook. Receiving a lot of very positive feedback I was inspired to start learning about composition and post- production and studied a couple of online courses. A couple of years ago I decided to print some Calendars of my favourite photos and gave them to friends and family as gifts for Christmas. The response was so overwhelmingly positive, that I decided to get more serious about photography and I recently invested in a Mirrorless camera.

In March 2024, at the point where I was the fittest and healthiest that I had ever been in my life, I was unfortunately (and quite ironically) diagnosed with Oesophageal Cancer and then a week later with a second primary cancer, this time a Plasma Cell Cytoma in my shoulder. In May 2024, I went through radiotherapy for my shoulder followed by 4 cycles of pre-op chemotherapy. In August I had an 11 hour operation to remove the tumour and once recovered enough another 4 cycles of post op chemo.

My shoulder responded well to the radiotherapy and so far, has not returned. However, in March of this year I found out that cancer had spread to lymph nodes in my chest area and that this is now inoperable and that I will have to have palliative treatment (chemotherapy and immunotherapy), likely for the rest of my life, however long that is.

While this is obviously devastating and has had a huge effect on me being able to go out hiking, I am thankful that I was as fit and healthy as I was before going through treatment and the op as it really helped me to recover and still have a good quality of life. I am determined that I will not give in to this and at times when I’m feeling ok, I’ve been able to get out and do some shorter, easier routes compared to what I used to do, with the support of my wonderful friends.

I’ve had to re-think where my focus should be and so have shifted more towards photography rather than hiking. I certainly haven’t given up on hiking and will continue to try and build myself back up so that I can get back up in the mountains properly at some point, but getting out to do some photography, which allows me to get out to some beautiful locations and also brings me enormous pleasure and helps me cope with the challenges in my life.

Recently, I enrolled on and completed a photography course at the local college and have also been keenly studying online as well as constantly watching many YouTube videos from professional photographers in an effort to improve my skills. I’ve created this website mainly to have somewhere other than Facebook or Instagram (where you give away your rights to your photos) to have some of my favourite ones displayed for people to view.