"Last year I was 70. So it follows that now I am 71. Last year I left my life in Devon, where I had lived for 50 years, and moved up to the Wirral. I left a rural and beautiful county for a much populated area, that of the North West. For an area between Liverpool and Chester. And with that move I grew. Not exactly up, I just grew.

It all began with Simon's first Transformation Day at Sharpham.

I was thinking that, probably, there's no way this can change anything. But Simon carried off the day with style and grace, and for me, everything began its own small insidious transformation.

On the walk of life that day, I found my Future Space opposite a small house and garden. My attention was drawn by three windsocks blowing in the wind on a washing line. One was coloured streamers and the movement and the colours attracted me. There was a child's slide and a hammock slung under a tree and it was all small and seemed to be family orientated. Which suits me fine as that's a big part of how I am.

In my Destiny Space I found a large river. I thought little of this at the time.

My transformation continued with a week in Italy at 'The Hill that Breathes' on a Yoga 'holiday' - holiday in inverted commas as the Yoga was incredibly tough. Tough for someone 10 years older than anyone else and with knees that couldn't do half the exercises. For 24 hours I wondered what the hell I was doing there, got over that when I realised nobody gave a stuff about my age nor the fact I couldn't do the Yoga. And I had a Transformation Week. In a wonderful place with wonderful food and a great philosophy on life.

I returned to living on my own in my draughty, mouldy, rented cottage. I loved that cottage, despite the draughts and the mould. Set in a stunning valley with a glimpse of the sea from an upstairs window, an untidy garden and a kindly landlord. But, again insidiously, something was transforming.

It took a cold spell - although nothing like the one we have had this year - and a Christmas with family staying, New Year with more family in France and a visit to friends in Barcelona, for me to realise what was changing. And having flu underlined it. I was lonely. Lonely for family, and suddenly my own company wasn't enough.

My second daughter lived on the Wirral with her husband and two daughters, aged 16 and 13. I saw them infrequently and soon the girls would have left home and I would have missed knowing them. So I asked my daughter what she felt about me moving up there and when she sounded really pleased, the energy began to move in that direction. And once it started, there was no stopping it.

It wasn't going to be easy to find a place I could afford to rent, especially when I saw Parkgate and knew that was where I wanted to live. I hadn't known about Parkgate. I certainly hadn't known that when I saw this marshland estuary of the River Dee, I would be blown away. It stretched to infinity, or more correctly to the Irish Sea, and the Dee flowed as a ribbon of water, along the marsh to Chester, against a backdrop of the Welsh hills. And this side of the estuary, Parkgate's tall buildings, like faded Edwardian beauties, danced along the Parade.
I was brought up on the edge of Romney marsh in Kent and looking at the Dee estuary, I realised, for the first time, I was a closet marshlander. Not a hill person, which explained why, although I loved Devon, I had never enjoyed walking its hills. It seems strange sometimes that it took me until now to realise it.

It still wasn't easy to find a place to rent but I hadn't wavered in my choice of Parkgate. I 'knew' that was where I would live. Then my youngest daughter stepped into the breach and she and her husband bought a house for me to live in and rent from them. So we bought a small terraced cottage with a yellow door, which sold it to us, and although the initial price was more than their budget, I 'knew' the price would drop and by how much. And it did.

It is nine months since I moved. I love it up here. It is wonderful living near family with the sharing and help on both sides. I had no idea Northerners were so friendly, nor that they have a wonderfully quick sense of humour. I had no idea that Liverpool was so beautiful. Deprived area, Toxteth etc is what usually springs to mind. I had no idea the energy up here was so sharp and vibrant and the skies so big. I had no idea about a lot of things. But one thing I do know, it is never too late to change.

Thank you, Simon, for that Transformation Day."