In 1977, I took my first job in sales. I sold pianos and organs in a big shop in a major shopping mall near Toronto. In 1979, I attended the Baldwin Piano Company's advanced training academy - one of just two people from outside the USA to be invited that year. I graduated top of the class, and was offered a job at one of their elite franchises, but turned it down. A year later, I owned a franchise with one of their competitors.

I have been involved in sales, management and more recently training, for the majority of my career. I built a reputation for being able to take complex information and present it in simple terms that everyone could understand.

Poor health eventually forced me to abandon that demanding schedule, and I turned my attention to online marketing. I founded marketing-made-ez.co.uk (now marketing-made-ez.com) in 2008, and continue to make my living online.

I also spent 15 years playing in, and writing songs for, gospel groups in Canada in the 1970’s and 1980’s, but I put my creative efforts on hold for many years due to family and work commitments.

I have suffered from depression all of my life, although it was not formally diagnosed until 2008. Since being diagnosed, I have used music as a form of therapy, and it had been extremely helpful in restoring a sense of order to my life. The music I write now covers a wide spectrum, from choral to country, jazz to pop, with a focus on inspiration.

I have just released a collection of songs that are my attempt to put into words the thoughts and feelings I experienced before, during and after a lengthy period of darkness, when I felt as if a dark cloud was hanging over me, and it seemed like the sun would never shine in my life again.

If you have suffered, or currently suffer, from depression, you may find something here to relate to; to maybe put into words what you have been thinking. And if you are lucky enough never to have suffered through this mind-crippling disease, then perhaps you will gain some understanding of how it feels to those of us who have.

Dave Ketteringham