IN spring 2003, whilst working as an arts journalist on a daily paper in Northern Ireland, I took a chance and applied for a job at The Gazette in Basingstoke.

In the first week of June of that year, I packed up my trusty red VW Golf, got on a ferry and moved to England to begin said job.

I have taken a stroll down memory lane this week because I am about to commence my last week of working for the man who took a chance on me, our editor Mark Jones. He’s off to a wonderful, and very different, new job.

Most of us have experience of bosses – or perhaps you are one yourself – and take it from me, Mark is hard to beat.

For a start, he has a genuine passion for Basingstoke and all of the people who live and work in the town.

He was a key force in creating the A Place To Be Proud Of Awards because he has always believed in our community and those members of it who do so much for others.

More importantly for me has been the fact that he is such a caring and compassionate man.

For example, I’m writing this column from home today because my darned back is preventing me from moving or walking properly and Mark made no other comment when I told him save to express sympathy and to ask if there was anything he could do to help.

He knows I’ll get on with my work and this flexibility and trust has enabled me to continue to do the job that I love, and to get on with things generally despite my health issues.

He’s also a working parent’s dream, never complaining or uttering a negative word when my daughter’s illness or similar has caused me to immediately leave what I am doing and go to her.

Mark is not only a superb boss, one who wants the best for all of his staff and would do anything he can to help, but he is a great personal friend to every single one of us.

In the future, should we need him, we all know that we only have to call or text and he will be there with advice or offering assistance for whatever ails us.

I may tease him constantly, and give him a lot of grief – black humour has helped our team endure the extreme shrinkage of our workforce over the years – but I know that I would not be the journalist I am today had it not been for him.

It’s an incredible gift when someone believes in you, and will always do their best to help and support you, and that’s what he has given to all of us for as long as we have worked for him.

He is irreplaceable, a character, one of a kind.

We wish him luck, of course, but oh how we will miss him.