Paul Blackburn

The author was born in Blackburn, England. He is 81 years old. At the tender age of 13, in 1950, he suffered his greatest and first tragedy when he lost his sight. His sight was restored three months later, but his eye specialist only managed to save five per cent of his eyesight and he's lived with that five per cent all his life. But that has never stopped him from doing what he loves or wanted to achieve. At an early age, after leaving school, he started working as an apprentice painter and decorator, and during those early years, he was also very successful in ballroom dancing. He stayed in that trade as a painter after ending his apprenticeship in 1958. In 1960, he married his dancing partner, who was also his childhood sweetheart, whom he started dancing with when they were only juveniles. In 1964, they emigrated to Perth, Western Australia and started their own painting contracting business, in 1990, the author and his wife built a large ballroom and dance studio, but in 1998, the author suffered his second and greater tragedy than his first. One Sunday night, after their dance had finished, they had a robbery. The author was beaten up and put in hospital, but his wife had a heart attack and died from a complication of the robbery. Although in shock, he kept his businesses going with the help of his managers and, later, Marilyn, a female dancer who became his friend. He married Marilyn in 2007. Paul still dances three times a week, as music and dancing have always been parts of his life. His other interests are in cruising around the world or Asia, as his wife, Marilyn, is Chinese and originally from Singapore.