'My neighbour was key to my glassblowing dream'

When Zoe Johnston failed her driving test for the second time, she thought she might never realise her dream of becoming a glassblower.

Without her full driving licence, she would find it all but impossible to reach Stourbridge from her home in Stoke-on-Trent, 50 miles (80km) away, for an internship to secure on-the-job experience she needed.

But as luck would have it, the key to her fulfilling her ambition lay just down the street - in the shape of retired neighbour Carl Goodwin, who happens to offer free extra driving lessons to anyone who has a car to go out in.

Fast forward two years, and those lessons not only helped Ms Johnston pass, but her burgeoning reputation resulted in her being asked to produce awards for the Women of the Year Luncheon and Awards that took place in Manchester on Friday.

Mr Goodwin, who was an emergency response driver for more than 15 years, says he steps in to help people who want to "improve their situations".

Ms Johnston explained: "He just said, 'Get a car, tax it, insure it and we can go out driving'."

It was just the push she needed and later, on taking her third test, she achieved "a very good pass mark," Mr Goodwin told the BBC.

"I don't even know how to put it," Ms Johnston said. "It was amazing of him. [I'm] very, very grateful."

The failed tests before she went to do a degree at Leicester's De Montfort University, had left her "losing a bit of self-confidence", she said, and "[Carl] kind of brought that back a bit".

During weekly lessons over two months, she said "we'd be out for like three or four hours".

"[It was a] different way of teaching when you're not under a time crunch to get as much done in an hour as possible," Ms Johnston explained.

She graduated with BA (Hons) in Design Crafts in 2022, before planning to get professional experience in Stourbridge - an area that has been known for centuries as a centre of glass production.

"I said [to Zoe], 'That's your motivation to get the lessons done and the test passed'," said Mr Goodwin.

After passing her test in March 2023, 18 months later she has made three awards for the awards, which took place at Manchester's Etihad Stadium.

"To work on a piece and see the final piece, you have to wait overnight for it to have enough time to cool down, that really gives me a lot of joy," she said.

The administration assistant said that glass-blowing was still more of a hobby, especially because while the university had paid her wages during her internship, it now costs her nearly £400 a day to hire a studio.

As for Mr Goodwin, who had put out a Facebook post two years ago offering to help people, he has now helped 12 learner drivers, 10 of whom have gone on to pass their test.

"Zoe has driven herself to do a skill that very few people could undertake," he said.

"I think personally she's excelled in what she's done and... in such a short space of time. She should be proud of herself."

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