I'm nearly 90, have battled cancer and now have my own YouTube channel

It’s safe to say Tony Crimlisk who turns 90 this month has lead a varied life having left school at 15 and started working as a telegram boy, then as an assistant in a music shop before serving his time in the RAF as a radar mechanic in Germany before spending the rest of his career teaching music.

After retiring, he and his wife Gill along with some of their friends started renovating an old farm property in France. Sadly, this came to an abrupt end in 2002 when Tony was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, also known as oesophageal cancer that develops in the esophagus.

He was given the bleak news that he may only have three months to live.

Tony said: “Being told I may only have three months to live proved a little premature and after a lot of unpleasant treatment I recovered.

“My wife of 43 years was less fortunate and died a few years later of leukaemia - three months after diagnosis.”

Keeping himself busy after his wife’s death, he became involved in The University of the Third Age (U3A) - an international movement whose aims are the education and stimulation of mainly retired members of the community — those in their third 'age' of life.

This is where his YouTube idea came to fruition.

He said: “So many people I have met told me that they want to learn how to play a musical instrument and that they regret giving up learning one as a child.

“I then started a guitar group and a musical theatre group.

“I realised that for older people the ukulele was far more practical than using the guitar.”

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After passing the guitar group on to someone else and forming a ukulele beginner’s group at his local youth branch, Tony hit a roadblock when Covid meant no more socialising.

The only way to keep the group going was to make online videos and he also posted a couple on YouTube to which he received positive feedback.

Tony added: “When Covid restrictions were lifted I passed the group on to others but continued making videos targeting ukulele sites that have a presence on YouTube and to my surprise I now discovered that I had a YouTube site and was quite excited to learn I had 12 subscribers.”

Fast forward a few years and he now has many followers who are all keen to watch him play his own songs and help others learn how to play the ukulele which is good for cognitive learning.

Tony added: “I didn’t intend to start a YouTube site accidentally. That was five years ago and I am still having fun.”