Last Night the DJ Saved my Life

Back in March I was introduced to a very remarkable man, Paul Johnson. I had gone to a fundraising evening for another remarkable little person, Jacob Phillips. Jacob is now 3 years old but he was born with a form of cerebral palsy and needed a life-changing operation out in St. Louis in America. His parents and grandparents are very good friends of mine and I have been actively attending fundraiser activities for Jacob over the past year. In fact, my son raised over a £1000 by doing a sponsored swim for him way back when the fundraising activities first begun. So proud of him! They needed to raise £70,000 to cover the operation and follow-on treatment and are well on target thanks to the generosity of  people out there. We hear enough about the bad that goes on in the world but the good out weighs the bad by a multitude!  By the way, you can check out Jacob’s Journey and read his story here  or follow his progress on Face Book.

Let’s get back to the evening. Paul and I ended up sitting on the same table at the fundraising evening. As we got talking I realised that Paul couldn’t see me. Paul was born without sight, but despite this he is a DJ on a local radio station and spends his spare time collecting for charity having done everything from sponsored walks to even driving a car (off road of course) to raise money for worthy causes. He is constantly promoting local talent on his radio show and has a huge following. Read about Paul’s visit to the Paul O’Grady show here.

 

During the evening we talked about all manner of things and I mentioned that I was assistant director of a play that was soon to open at my local AmDram theatre, Neath Little Theatre. I was invited on to Paul’s show to promote the play and the theatre, which I eagerly accepted. It was a great experience and incredible to see Paul at work. I was amazed at the studio – quite state of the art considering how small it is, very professional with some great people there. I instantly knew that I wanted to be a part of it! Having never done anything like ‘Djing’ in my life before, I was offered training by Mike, the station manager, and I now find myself on air once a week with Mike on the Breakfast Show and loving every minute of it! I will be hosting my own slot in September for 6 weeks on a Wednesday afternoon from 1pm – 3pm covering for one of our DJs who is off to Australia for a visit. So as I said way back at the beginning of the blog, we are never too old to try new things!