"My first child was due, so it was back to the drawing board job-wise I'm now working on an IT helpdesk. There are people doing tree surgery now who are 20 years younger than me and quicker, and speed is everything."Paul still works as a volunteer in woodlands, and helps with family and friends' gardens. "I was very pleased to have had the opportunity to do something different It's nice to have a skill that not many people have Now, if there's any excuse I will always go for a climb. So while the prize didn't change my life totally, it gave me a whole new set of skills and great fun."RUNNER-UP JOHN GREENFIELD, £500'Our ducklings were self-destructing'Dream: To breed ornamental ducksJohn, from North Chailey, near Lewes, East Sussex, hoped to breed ducks as a business. "I'd seen some at a local tourist attraction," he says, "and I thought they were attractive, bonny little creatures."The local government officer, now 51, spent his winnings on a dozen ducks, fox-proof fencing and a poultry house. However, the project never got off the ground commercially, as John and his wife Maralyn, who both worked, didn't have enough time to devote to it. "The ducklings have this kind of self-destruct mechanism and if you want them all to survive you really need to be quite intensive with them," said John.

"If you can get them through the first three weeks they toughen up. But - especially in the early years - we'd get back from work expecting to find them all as we had left them in the morning, but instead would find that two or three had managed to drown themselves in their water bowls, or been attacked by large birds."John still has five ducks kept as pets: the oldest is one of the original contingent "He's still fit and well," says John happily. "In a way I'm disappointed that it didn't work out as a business, but we've had endless fun. The ducks are great creatures: each one has got its own personality."Winning the money hasn't changed our lives, but it's certainly kept us entertained. We've had a great deal of fun out of the ducks - and the odd heartache when I've come back and found that my favourite duckling has been sat on."RUNNER-UP CATHERINE BAINES, £1,000'The trip to Paris was a much-needed morale boost'Dream: To buy a battery-powered all-terrain buggy to enable her to get out and aboutAbout a year before The Independent launched its competition, Catherine Baines was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. At the time of the competition, she was reliant on her wheelchair; the buggy that she hoped to buy cost about £8,000, and she dreamed of using it on a trip to Paris.Instead, she won £1,000 and decided to spend it celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary with a five-day trip to the French capital.

Her husband pushed her around the streets in her manual wheelchair, and they had "a lovely time"."Considering my health - which was enough to depress anyone - it was a morale-boost to have won £1,000 for writing something," says Catherine, now 56, from Market Harborough, "even though it was only 150 words. It was a great fillip."Sadly, the couple separated last year "I long to go back 10 years. My adult children, their partners, my relatives and friends have, with love and hard work, kept me alive. But I weep for my husband many times a day."She has also changed her name to Catherine Tomato Collard "My maiden name was Catherine Margaret Collard.