Variety, unpredictability, excitement, energy. No two days are ever the same; no two stories are ever identical. News always keeps you guessing and it’ll always surprise you. After all you can’t predict people and you can’t predict the world we live in. Journalism has taken me to almost every corner of the world, reporting amazing, shocking, awful and thrilling events from more than 100 countries across every continent. And every big news story still gives me a huge buzz. I wouldn’t swap my career for anything.

Work very hard at being accurate, fair, truthful and responsible. You’ve been given the honour of representing your readers, viewers and listeners and telling them what’s happening in the wider world. So don’t let them down. And don’t get in the way of the story. If you want to be a celebrity on television, then you’re in the wrong business. Communicating, telling the story is always the priority.

I was lucky enough to be Africa Correspondent in the early 1990s reporting on the final years of Apartheid and, in 1994, South Africa’s first truly inclusive democratic election. I reported from Pretoria on the day Nelson Mandela became the country’s first black President and declared South Africa ‘a Rainbow Nation’. As a journalist, it was the ultimate privilege to witness an extraordinary moment in world history – a day I genuinely never thought I’d see in my lifetime. And there’s little doubt that the media played a major role in bringing to bear the international attention and pressure that eventually brought an end to Apartheid.

While I was a reporter at Look North I covered the Black Panther case – a long-running multiple murder investigation in Yorkshire. I went on to cover the trial at Oxford Assizes. It turned out to be such a sensational case that I found myself reporting the story daily for BBC’s Nine O’clock News – a great chance to catch the eye of the network news bosses. It was clearly a big break, as few months later I was selected to become BBC News’ first North of England Correspondent.

No. I always really wanted to be a professional sportsman – cricket or rugby. But then I guess most schoolboys do. But I was always good at English language and writing and began to think journalism might suit me. But the careers advisors at school persuaded me to train as a chartered surveyor. Then I tried advertising before deciding I really ought to give journalism a go.

At the age of 19 I joined the Cambridge Evening News on a four years apprenticeship as an indentured trainee reporter. I was planning to progress to Fleet Street and the national newspapers. But BBC local radio started up and I managed to get a job at Radio Sheffield. From there I moved on to regional television as a reporter on BBC Look North in Leeds.