I come from a very large Irish Roman Catholic family, having been educated in my early years at a school where I was taught by Nuns! I am the youngest of 8 children, though 'young' is relative as I recently celebrated my 60th birthday.

I am married to a wonderful lady called Sue, we foster a child with complex needs who is wheelchair bound and between us we manage to look after 7 children and 4 grandchildren. I have 3 sons from my first marriage, all now over 21, and I attend Manchester United home games with my eldest son, John-Mark, as we are both season ticket holders.

My education background is quite bizarre really, I attended St.Gregorys Grammar school in Ardwick Green but left at 15 never having taken any exams or achieved any qualifications. It was only later on in life, after attending Bible College, that I discovered a flair for learning.

I moved to Nottingham after Bible College to become the minister of a small pentecostal church there, afterwards I studied at Nottingham University to obtain a Bachelor of Theology degree, later at Sheffield University to obtain my MA.                                                          

Whilst living and working in Nottingham I became part of the ministry team at the Christian Centre, working alongside David Shearman for around 5 years, he taught me much about being a christian and serving as a church leader.

In the past few years I have taught Religious Studies at A Level, and currently spend my time as part of the leadership team here at Carmel.