1. 12, Deirdre Avenue
Widnes, Cheshire
WA86PA, UK
Tel: 0151 511 7691
Mob: 0779 1014290
mark.allen@halton.gov.uk
Twitter: @Widneschappy
Mark Allen Journalist/PressOfficer/EuropeanGoldMedalist
Background
and Objectives
I am an experienced journalist and PR officer with an enviable history of good intra-
personal skills. My work has taken me to a number of environments and countries
including reporting from Northern Ireland and interviewing Tony Blair. I have journalistic
and academic qualifications and a wide experience of living and working abroad where I
diversified and taught English. In nine years working for Halton Borough Council I have
increased its profile and coverage and mushroomed its use of social media. I achieved a
reach of 5 million people in a year for my local theatre. While waiting for and recovering
from a double lung transplant, I wrote for newspapers, magazines, websites and appeared
on TV, radio and the internet raising awareness of CF and the National Transplant Donor
Register I aim to continue using these skills – and my spirited work ethic – in my vocation.
Journalistic
PR / Experience
2007-2015 Press/PR Officer – Halton Borough Council
I broke records for coverage for HBC.. I plan publicity campaigns, put out releases, social
media, answer enquiries, release statements, write for residents’ magazine, update
website and advise members/officers on media matterl, take pics and monitor coverage.
2006 – Press/PR Officer, Walsall Council I showed enthusiasm for
local govt PR by working for Walsall on an expenses only basis to learn the craft and hone
my skills. I answered enquiries and was given my own projects to get publicity for.
2003-06 Journalist, Freelance I wrote for many newspapers, including
regular columns for the Express & Star/Mercury and had a placement on Midlands Today. I
set up a firm to manage my work and edited the Transplant Support Network news.
1996-99 Journalist, Express and Star, Stafford During three years
on this lively evening paper at its Stafford office I covered a wide variety of court, council,
call and off-diary pieces as well as features and entertainment stories. I seldom failed to
have good leads for the morning schedule, through a combination of effort and contacts.
1995-96 Journalist, The Chronicle, Wolverhampton, UK
I was responsible for two weekly editions of the paper, covering a lot of grass roots
issues in the former mining community of Cannock Chase. I increased the youth
readership through expanding the music and review sections.
1994-95 Journalist, Staffordshire Newsletter, Stafford, UK
This was my first full-time reporting post and got grounding in all types of stories with daily deadlines. I was
responsible for my own edition as well as being the major contributor to both the main edition and
supplements.
Work Placements while studying included : The Cavendish Press Agency, Manchester,
Isle Of Man Courier, Lichfield Mercury, Lichfield Post Express& Star and Staffordshire Newsletter.
I co-founded a student newspaper in Sheffield, launched with interviews with Meat Loaf, Paul Foot and

2. Tony
Benn, and wrote for the Manchester Met University magazine ‘Pulp’.
Other Work  September 2001 to April 2002 - Teacher Brainy FLI, Daegu, Korea
 December 2000 to August 2001 – Teacher ECC, Masan, Korea
 April 2000 to June 2000 – Marketing, Modern Roofing, Preston, Australia
 Jan 2000 to April 2000 - Marketing, TNG Sydney/Melbourne Australia
 June 1993 to September 2003 – Camp Supervisor, Tecumseh, USA
 June 1991 to September 1991 – Surveyor, CENTRO Ltd, Birmingham
 June 1990 to September 1990 – Construction Worker, C.E.D.O, Burton
 I have also been a paid extra for the BBC and am on an NHS Focus Group.
Education 2013 – City & Guilds, Safeguarding Children 2009-2011: Institute of Leadership and
Management. ILM 2,3 and 5
2006 – Lichfield College – ECDL Advanced (BCS Level 3)
2004/5 – Lichfield College – ECDL and Clait Plus (BCS Level 2)
1996/7 – Express & Star – GVNQ Level 4 (Newspaper Journalism)
1993/4 – Stradbroke Centre, Sheffield – NCTJ One-Year Journalism
1990/3 – Manchester Metropolitan University/Utrecht University BA (Hons)
Politics/Sociology
1985/90 Chase Terrace High School A levels: Politics, English, Economics, Gen Studies
GCSEs: Politics, English Lit, English Lang, English Oral, Economics, History,
Geography,
French, Maths, Physics, Design (all A to C Grades)
Interests I have been European table tennis champion in my class for more than five years and have multiple
local, UK and European titles. I compete at the British Transplant Games as well as representing the UK
in competitions in Lithuania, Sweden, Holland and Belfast.
I was 2014 Halton Sportsman of the Year and have given talks to schools. I carried the Paralympic Torch on the
opening day of London 2012.
I have been lucky enough to manage to combine my hobbies with my work. I love music and the arts and have
done dozens of reviews paid and unpaid for newspapers, magazines and websites.
I enjoy being in the spotlight and have been interviewed on Radio WM, Beacon Radio, BRMB, BBC Merseyside
and TV’s Midlands Today as well as being in an Inside Out documentary.
I had a regular Mp3 diary slot on Adrian Goldberg’s BBC Radio WM show and have also appeared on Central
TV, Korean TV and CNN (Hurricane Emily)
I came runner-up in the The Midlands ‘Big Brother’ contest – living with four others in a see-through container in
Cannock.
I spend promote awareness of the CF Trust and have spoken at meetings about my experiences. I have a blog
where I documented my wait for the transplant. It had 13,000 hits one year.
I have visited many countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, China, Japan, Guam,
most of Europe and Canada. I have lived in Australia, Korean Holland and USA.
I play piano to Grade 4 level and bass guitar. I played keyboards in Manchester band Anorexic Fetish and Gifted
Organs. I write songs and poems – many have been published and recorded. I recently recorded at Peter

3. Gabriel’s Real World stuidios with The Gifted Organs. A band of transplantees. We recorded an EP and video.
I have a habit of bumping into celebrities in unusual places!