25th anniversary of Leeds Community Highlights magazine

Patricia has been collecting and writing about the people and places around her for the Community Highlights magazine for a quarter of a century.

Patricia said: "Since starting out as an unknown writer, yearning for a door to open up for me, I set about compiling positive news stories from my community and the rest, as they say, is history.

"Community Highlights has collected a number of awards, as well as working with a number of volunteers."

Patricia said the magazine has been run on a "shoestring budget" with the majority of support coming from generous advertisers.

Patricia said: "We also do our utmost to promote local talent, role models and youth projects in the community to get to the heart of all that’s positive in our area.

"It’s amazing to think back to our first issue in 1995, which was a black and white magazine we photocopied and distributed ourselves. It was designed by a local member of the community, our first such collaboration.

"In comparison, the magazine today is full of colour and available online at www.communityhighlights.co.uk

"Over the last 25 years, I’ve seen so many changes throughout the media world, everything is online these days, and there've been lots of businesses that have come and gone.

"Unfortunately, we’ve not been immune to the effects of lockdown.

" It’s been really hard on the shops we work with as many are closed, not knowing if they’ll ever reopen again.

"In this sense we can’t really blame them for not wanting to advertise, although it has impacted on our revenue quite significantly.

"Thankfully, it hasn’t been all bad. I’ve noticed that lockdown has brought out an entrepreneurial spirit in many people.

"The human need for survival has seen many creative ways of bringing money into businesses and households, with people now thinking outside of the box.

"I myself am working on a book about our 25 year journey, which I’m calling 'Fruits of Labour.'"