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This Life:Mark of the man
LEEDS City Council deputy leader Mark Harris, 51, is one of three children born to a middle-class family in north Leeds.
His father, Montague Harris, was a second generation Jew whose ancestors moved from Poland to Britain in the 1870s.
He was also a well-respected member of the business community who, after training as a teenager with tailoring legend Montague Burton, in 1960 set up the family clothing firm Cimara.
Coun Harris joined in the running of the business alongside brother Julian and sister Judith Chapman.
Coun Harris has two children Esther, 18, and 14-year-old Joseph.
Coun Harris officially entered politics in 1984 when he was elected for the ward of Moortown as a founding member of the SDP, which later evolved into the Liberal Democrats.
Cancer
But just five years later his world was turned upside down when he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had to have major surgery which involved having his vocal chords removed.
After his operation he learned to speak again by forcing air from his diaphragm, but not before he took part in numerous sponsored events to repay the debt of gratitude to the life-saving medical teams at Cookridge and St James's Hospital in Leeds.
Two decades after becoming a councillor he became leader of Leeds City Council when a rainbow coalition was formed between the LibDems, Conservatives and the Green Party.
He now holds the position of leader and deputy leader alternately, exchanging the role every six months with Conservative leader Coun Andrew Carter.
The one thing I couldn't live without, literally, is the medicine I have had to take every day for 18 years now to replace my thyroid and parathyroid, both removed to save my life when I was diagnosed with cancer.
Emotionally though it is my two children who are the light of my life and who through so many ups and downs are the constant ray of hope and sunshine.
Also I couldn't live without wine. What a lush!
My first job was working for my father in his clothing factory on Cross Green Lane. I have such fond memories of those years but in truth do not regret the loss of what were low paid sweatshops.
Even so, my father was keen to make sure both my brother and I learned from the bottom up on the shop floor. No favours – we were never the boss's sons and everyone knew that if we attempted that line we would get a real rollicking.
So I started in the sleeve section working for Hilda on the jump press. After work we would go to the Black Dog for a pint. For a nice middle class North Leeds boy this was a real education - but a good one which I relished.
It taught me to fear nobody and nothing and to treat people for who they are not what society says they are.
But the first job I ever got, shall we say in my own right, was selling potatoes off the back of a wagon on the Hawksworth Estate in Kirkstall. Now that was an education!
I'm most proud of my children of course, first and foremost. What parent shouldn't be? But after that, the 10 full marathons I ran, after my laryngectomy, to raise money for St James and Cookridge Hospitals who, against all the odds, saved me when the chips were down in April 1989.
The best thing about Leeds is the people who live here. It's what makes Leeds great. It's what gives us our resilience and grit. It's what creates our wealth and stature.
It's the people of Leeds who have always welcomed, and I am sure will continue to welcome, anyone who wants to come and live here - no matter what their faith, colour, ethnicity so long as they want to positively contribute to our City.
I relax by doing many things, that's when I can relax. Reading certainly. Listening to music. Cooking -something my father taught me. Drinking wine (again). Being with good friends with whom I can talk. Seeing new places and many familiar ones too - with Whitby by far top of the pile.
Watching rugby and to a lesser extent soccer. Watching war movies. Being in the fresh air.
My childhood was loving and warm above all else. I grew up in a stable if eccentric close extended family. Safe, middle class and yes I fully accept very privileged. Certainly very "liberal", where I was taught respect and tolerance of everyone, intellectually challenging and politically aware.
I've received lots of good pieces of advice over the years and a handful have stuck with me. In chronological order....Mrs Bowles my teacher in 2a at Talbot Primary taught me that when things go wrong there is no point complaining Iife's not fair. lt often isn't fair – you just have to pick yourself and get on with it.
Terry Elliott our first team rugby coach at Roundhay School taught me that there is a time to turn the other cheek and a time to stand up and be counted – knowing when is an art.
And my dad Monty Harris who on the evening I was first elected in May 1984 told me that there are only three certainties in life: sadly we all have to die and for football managers and politicians it always ends in tears. I can't buck the first. Thankfully I'm not the second and we shall see about the third.
The last time I cried was at Gary Broughton's funeral. Who was Gary Broughton?
Well, for anyone who ever came into the Civic Hall they will have met Gary. He was the most open, generous, uncomplaining gentle person I have ever worked with.
He was my age, with a wife and two lovely girls and he died suddenly and so young just before Christmas.
The sadness and upset I felt was only greater for the death of my parents.
My philosophy on life is simple: Nobody can choose the cards they are dealt but everyone can decide how to play them. It's the playing of the hand that counts.
If I could meet anyone alive or dead I would have liked to have met David Lloyd George who was my inspiration to first enter politics.
But latterly that has been overtaken by Winston Churchill about whom I have read much and dare I say I have his greatest speeches on CD which I listen to in the car.
He is to my mind without question the greatest Englishman ever who I am in no doubt saved Britain and the Western World in 1940/41.
Tell us a joke. I am afraid I don't know any clean or politically correct jokes to tell! As my colleagues will testify.
Favorite things
Food: Italian and in particular spaghetti.
Night out: Camping round an open fire.
Programme: Six Nations Rugby.
Author: This changes regularly but at the moment Sebastian Faulks.
Actor: A very close run thing between Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren but Robert De Niro has it.
Music: La Boheme by Puccini - I am a hopeless romantic or The Yes Album by Yes – because I'm still a would be head banging rock star!
Star Sign: Scorpio
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Weather for Leeds
Thursday 24 May 2012
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