I NEVER consider myself less than fortunate that my job allows me to visit places and meet people that would have been unimaginable as a lad growing up in a terraced corporation house on the St Dials estate in Cwmbran in the 1970s.

My dad was a factory worker and my mum looked after me and my two younger sisters. When I declared at the age of nine that I wanted to be a journalist, the idea seemed slightly preposterous for someone from my background.

As a result, I rarely moan about my lot despite the regional newspaper industry going through some tough times during the last decade. Not many people get to do the job they wanted to do as a kid, let alone to do it for more than 30 years as I have done.

This week provided me with one of those opportunities to do something that I couldn’t have dreamed of doing all those years ago when I visited 10 Downing Street for a St David’s Day reception hosted by the prime minister.

Monday’s event wasn’t the first time I’ve been to Downing Street.

I’ve attended receptions given for regional newspaper editors over the years by Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron.

But this week was different – and more enjoyable – because there were Welsh people from all walks of life in attendance.

And it is sometimes good to remind ourselves that our small nation produces such successful people, whether the success they have achieved has come in business, sport, or public service.

So I had the chance to chat to the likes of TV sports presenter Gabby Logan and GoCompare founder Hayley Parsons.

They were there along with WRU chairman Gareth Davies, Bradley Cummings and Gareth Williams from Newport’s Tiny Rebel brewery and head teachers Alyson Mills and Heather Vaughan (from Lliswerry High and St Woolos Primary respectively).

For all of them, an invite to 10 Downing Street had nothing to do with politics.

It was a recognition of their hard work and success, and of their impact on Wales and the wider world.

And it gave them a chance to see inside one of the most famous front doors in the world.

I would urge anyone who gets the chance to visit Downing Street to grab it with both hands.

It is a fascinating and surprising place. Fascinating because it has housed the official residences of the prime minister and the chancellor of the exchequer for more than 300 years.

You feel a real sense of history as you climb the main staircase of No 10 adorned by portraits of every prime minister from Walpole to Cameron.

Surprising, firstly, because it is such a small street.

Now it only contains four houses, and secondly because No 10 itself is Tardis-like once you get past that famous front door.

It is far from my natural environment, as I suspect is the case for many of the other guests this week, but it is a wonderful place to be invited to visit.