My Open University journey began after being found guilty of murder at 41 and given a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 16 years for a crime I did not commit. I found myself at HMP Belmarsh, certainly not one of the more attractive or forward-thinking prisons in the UK, with officers wanting to maintain their ‘harsh’ reputation. There was little choice of activities and I was immediately assigned to packing tea and cereal packs.

That was not for me, so I discovered a ‘little oasis’, the Education Department. I found my way onto a level 3 counselling course, which included study of Freud and Maslow's work in the psychology field. Nearing the end of the course, I asked the tutor if she felt I was bright enough to study towards a degree in psychology. There was a positive response and she introduced me to the distance learning coordinator. Not a widely promoted position at Belmarsh!

The whole process of being on remand for 10 months and then a sixweek trial certainly drained me and the guilty verdict left me at the lowest I have ever felt, not knowing what I was going to do with the next 16 years. With support from the distance learning coordinator and the counselling tutor (a qualified psychologist), I found myself enrolled onto DD101, Introducing the Social Sciences, in 2009, with an objective of completing a degree in psychology. I was a keen sportsperson and understood how a positive mindset can help your performance. However, let's just say the facilities at Belmarsh were rather basic.

The initial module was rather daunting: “Here are some books, read them”; “The Education Department have got some DVDs, watch them, take notes and write some essays.” Sounds simple doesn't it! Now the reality – we were not allowed DVD players, Playstations or X-boxes (despite what the Daily Mail tells its readers!). By this time, I had progressed to working in the gym and had to liaise with the distance learning coordinator to wheel in a TV and DVD player for an hour at a time to watch and take notes, then refer back to coursework.