While working in a corporate business to business environment, I had little or no effect on real people-the ones who actually use the goods and services that big businesses provide. I decided that I wanted to combine my business experience with a role which would allow me to have a direct effect on the people I worked with. It was then that I came across a small business called Brookvale which had been set up to help people in debt.

I joined Brookvale in 1999. After attending numerous financial courses and learning all I could about personal debt problems and how to solve them, I took the role of a personal debt advisor. This job involves analysing someone’s financial position in great detail and is often a difficult and emotional process for them.

Over the last few years, I have visited over 1000 people, normally in their homes, and seen many situations where often relatively young people owe tens of thousands of pounds of debt. People often ask me whether this is depressing, discussing people’s financial difficulty every day. My answer has always been 'Absolutely' not. What we are actually doing is finding a solution to resolve the problem. More often than not, you end your day on a high because you know you have helped someone to resolve an extremely difficult problem which they could not have done without you.

I was made Operations Director at Brookvale in May 1999 and this meant that as well as visiting my own clients, I was also responsible for managing other people who were working as debt advisors for the company. The role was perfect for me as it enabled me to combine my love business with my passion for helping people and making a difference to their lives. After working for Brookvale for 5 years, I left the company. However, I wanted to remain involved with the personal debt management and so co-founded Thomas Charles & Co.

By 2005, personal debt problems in the UK seemed to be getting worse not better. However, I noticed that the only books about how to resolve debt and manage your person finances were written by Americans for the American market. I remember thinking that it would be great if there was a book which was designed for people living in the UK. With the help of colleagues at Thomas Charles, I therefore set about writing such a book. IVA, Bankruptcy and Other Debt Solutions was published in August 2006. I believe it is a comprehensive guide to personal debt solutions in Britain and hope that it can be a help to many people.