The Bucks Free Press have welcomed its first Facebook-funded reporter to its talented team of journalists.

James Richings, 25, from Aylesbury, started his new role on Monday June 3 and will report for the Marlow Free Press.

Speaking about his new role, he said, “Becoming a qualified journalist and working as a professional reporter has always been a dream of mine, so I am very happy that the Bucks Free Press have given me this opportunity.

“Marlow is a beautiful part of Buckinghamshire and in the short time I’ve been with the company, everyone has made me feel welcome.”

Despite landing a job he has worked very hard for, journalism wasn’t in fact Mr Richings’ first career choice, as he had aspirations of becoming a professional footballer.

However, after realising that this wasn’t realistic, he opted to choose a more sensible career path: Acting.

This came about after his secondary school (Mandeville Upper School in Aylesbury), did not offer any media studies subjects at GCSE, so he opted to choose drama instead.

During this four year period where he completed both his GCSEs and A Levels in the theatrical subject, Mr Richings participated in numerous musicals, pantomimes and dance shows, which included a performance at the Wycombe Swan back in July 2010.

The then 16-year-old, was part of a group of students from Mandeville Upper School who took part in the charity dance competition, ‘Dance for Life’, with the Aylesbury school finishing in first place in the county finals.

Three months earlier, the school won the regional finals which took place in Beaconsfield.

After leaving school in August 2012, Mr Richings’ chance to forge a career in media arrived as he joined Stoke Mandeville Hospital Radio, five days after receiving his A Level results.

Still a member to this day, he has presented over 250 radio shows, produced over 300 programmes and has taken part and has organised charity events for the station.

He has also done work for Mix 96 and Jack FM Oxford.

In print and online journalism, Mr Richings worked for Taylor Newspapers in Didcot, Oxfordshire, between April 2014 and March 2017, where he was the entertainment reporter for the Oxfordshire Guardian, Oxford Journal, Basingstoke Observer, Newbury & Thatcham Observer and the Oxford Paper.

During his three years there, he also started his NCTJ qualifications with the College of Media and Publishing in Chichester in April 2015.

As this was an online course, he continued to study and work at the same time, but the stress of balancing a full time job and a full time degree eventually caught up with him, so he decided to leave the role in March 2017 to focus on the NCTJ.

He completed his studies in March of this year.