I first joined scouting at the tender age of 7 years when I joined the cubs at the 5 th Tyne sea scout group in Dunston, as a blue six member I enjoyed the wonderful activities we did on a pack night I also enjoyed my first night camping at the boggy beamish district cub campsite in my first year. From that moment on I was hooked on scouting. I moved to the scout group at the age of 10 and loved the boating activities we did as a sea-scout, such as spending many evenings rowing a big heavy boat up and down the Tyne from the old Dunston Flourmill where we kept and maintained our boats. At 14 I went back to help out with the cub pack as a helper while still attending scouts. At 18 I took out my first leader warrant as an assistant cub scout leader. I stayed with the 5th Tyne until around 25 years old when a combination of moving to Winlaton and having a young family meant I didn’t have time to continue being involved. At this point I took a break from scouting until a change meeting with George McLeod who was running a work based course I was on in 1989, this coincided with the time I was thinking about getting back into scouting and was about to return to the 5th Tyne. He told me that the 12th Gateshead were struggling to find a scout leader and unless he did the group would close. I offered to help and said I’d run the scouts for six months to give him time to find someone. I suppose the rest is history I’ve been at the 12 th Gateshead ever since and enjoyed my scouting very much. I took on the role of Group scout Leader in the mid 1990s when we were struggling for leaders while still running the scout section on a weekly basis and have so for many years until we finally got a new motivated scout leader this in Matthew Corder. My Aim in scouting has always been the same, I gained so much through scouting including skills that help me forge careers in leisure and recreation, youth offending and Children’s services. I have always wanted to offer the same opportunities to others who entered scouting but my main aim was to make it fun at the same time as providing these opportunities to develop.