A DECORATOR has put pen to paper and written a poem thanking the man who helped him back into work.

Receiving poetry from a new deal client was a first for personal adviser Damian Bowling but for Peter Worthington, of Worston Close, Accrington, it was a natural way to mark the occasion.

Peter, 54, started out as a painter and decorator when he was 14 and has been in the trade on and off ever since.

But a car accident three years ago halted his career temporarily when his doctor advised him not to climb ladders because of an injury caused to his back.

He taught himself how to use computers and found work with VMT at Time Computers in Simonstone while his back recovered . Then he was made redundant earlier this year.

Now, thanks to help from Damian Bowling at Accrington Jobcentre, Peter is back in work at Spain Building and Maintenance in Colne and looking forward to a prosperous new year.

As a token of thanks he sent one of his trademark poems to Damian who had regular meetings with Peter to help build his confidence and arranged funding through New Deal 50 plus to buy new tools to begin work again.

Damian, 35, said : "It was a surprise but I was really chuffed to get the poem. It's not often you get thanks in this job so it's nice when you do.

"My job is great anyway because I get to help people like Peter and it is the things like this that make it even more worth while."

The poem now has pride of place on Damian's wall and he has even asked Peter to do two more for his children Abigail, six, and Lewis, four.

The part-time poet began putting rhymes together seven years ago while doodling on lining paper but the first real one he wrote was for his daughter Paula when she lost her first-born child, Joshua.

Taking the letters of his grandson's name as the starting point for each line he put together a touching tribute for Paula to keep and this became his style for all future verses.

Peter, has previously been published in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph with his tributes to Blackburn kidnap victim Paul Wells and Princess Diana -- and he even sent poems with his work bills to former customers.

He said: "As I was working I would be putting together the first few lines in my head and by the time I'd finished and the bill was ready the poem would be too.

"It was just a habit I had and people used to like it _ a poem is really just my way of saying thanks.

"At first I just wrote them or typed them out on an old typewriter.

"But later ones have been done by computer and with calligraphy for the first letters to make them stand out.

"People now ask me to do them for special birthdays and events such as anniversaries."

The poem:

Down in the dumps with nothing to do

After six months I was interviewed by you

Made me aware of the help I could receive

I've now got a job it's hard to believe

All the help and assistance that came from you

Now I'd just like to say a big THANK YOU