WE HAVE a saying at my football club Birmingham City – keep right on to the end of the road. Well, today I reach the end of my road at The Gazette.

After 18 years at this wonderful newspaper –13 as editor – I am bowing out today, and my departure also marks the end of a career in journalism that spans 30 years.

I feel very privileged, and proud, to have been one of only a few people who have edited The Gazette since it was founded in 1878.

The times have certainly changed in the last 137 years – and journalism has changed dramatically in the 13 years since I have been at the helm – but some things are a constant.

Like all of my predecessors, I have always strived to lead a team with the goal of producing newspapers which would interest, inform and entertain the readers.

Under my editorship, The Gazette has hopefully lived up to its pledge to be at the heart of the local community, particularly by being a newspaper that has campaigned on issues that matter to the readers.

I am proud of many things that the editorial team has achieved since I joined The Gazette in 1997, but undoubtedly one of the highlights has been the Basingstoke – A Place to be Proud of campaign.

I launched this campaign back in September 2003 after getting fed up of people putting Basingstoke down – ignorant critics who thought our town was just a cheap joke, and didn't know any better.

By that time, I had been at The Gazette for six years, and I knew it was a great town and a great borough – a place where there were scores of good, positive, community-minded people. And I knew it was a place to be proud of.

I believed it was time that the community of Basingstoke and Deane started to shout about, and celebrate, the good people and good things about the town and borough. And I was not alone.

The campaign really took off, ||and it quickly spawned the A Place to be Proud of Awards – an event that has now been running for a dozen years and which has seen so many unsung and worthy local heroes and organisations recognised for their contribution to Basingstoke and Deane.

It has been marvellous to hear how the phrase ‘a place to be proud of’ has become much-used over the last 12 years, and it has been great to see how community pride in Basingstoke and Deane has swelled.

The winners of the A Place to be Proud of Awards all have a ‘can do’ attitude – and that is a trait that has been evident in so many people who I have had the pleasure of working with at The Gazette, and in the wider community.

I have been very fortunate to work with some incredible journalists in Basingstoke over the last 18 years, a period that has seen the size of the team reduce from nearly 40 people to just 10 today.

I have the greatest admiration and respect for my current team, and for many others who have come and gone in my time at The Gazette.

I am so proud, and privileged, to have led such a wonderful group of talented people, and to have made so many good friends (and yes, I am still blushing about the kind words my lovely leisure guru Joanne wrote in her My World column last Thursday!) And I have also been lucky to meet, and become friends with, so many wonderful people in the local community.

There are so many I could mention, but they know who they are – and they all have something in common: they are all good people who have made a telling and positive contribution to life in Basingstoke and Deane.

I believe that I am leaving The Gazette in good shape, and that Basingstoke and Deane is also in good shape.

Exciting times are on the horizon, and there is no doubt that our place to be proud of is really going places.

Since news of my impending departure was announced in November, many people have passed on their best wishes and made kind comments, which I am very grateful for, and feel very humbled by. I would like to thank them all – and I would also like to pass on my thanks to all of you who have read The Gazette, The Basingstoke Extra and who are increasingly reading us online, and following us on Facebook and Twitter.

Your support for our community-focused campaigns has been fantastic, and I will never forget how our Gazette Life-Blood campaign in 2006 resulted in 1,397 new donors signing up to give blood – a commitment from you that saved lives.

I will miss my wonderful team, most of all, and I will miss playing a key role in a great community newspaper, but I am really looking forward to taking up my new job – one that will see me involved in a major project that will make a difference to the lives of people in Basingstoke and Deane and further afield.

As director of fundraising and communications for the Ark Cancer Centre Charity, I have the exciting challenge of helping to raise £5million towards an £18.5m state-of-the-art cancer treatment centre which will benefit the population served by Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

So while it’s goodbye from me at The Gazette today, I look forward to meeting many of you as I raise awareness of the vitally important cancer centre project.

My best wishes and thanks to you all – and as one journey ends, another is about to begin...