I was born in the small Scottish town of Bothwell in 1980. At an early age I moved with my family to Mallorca, spending a short while there before returning to the UK and finally settling on the outskirts of Newcastle. My father was a marine engineer with Esso tankers and also worked for Swan Hunter on the Tyne. When I left school I wanted to be an airline pilot. However, when I found out that the British Airways pilot training programme had relatively few placements each year, my father suggested a career in the merchant navy. In 1998 I commenced my four-year training at South Shields Marine College near Newcastle.
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