Rapper T Dogg is a senior sensation

And T Dogg is...... a 65-year-old pensioner from Burnley!

Yes you did read that correctly and T Dogg is known in his everday life as Trevor Ryder who is building himself quite a little fan club with his weekly rap slots on local radio station 2BR.

“If I can make people smile then I am happy with that,” said Trevor who started rapping when he was at death’s door, quite literally, in hospital.

Suffering from pneumonia, Trevor heard doctors tell Julie, his wife of 46 years, there was nothing more they could do for him after treatment had failed. And although he was in bed unconscious Trevor heard every word.

“I could hear them saying it and I thought I don’t think so because I am not ready to go yet,” he said.

“I opened my eyes and all the lights on the machines started flashing and making sounds.

“I am sure the hospital thought there had been an alien invasion.”

Doctors were stunned and could not come up with a medical reason for Trevor’s recovery but he is convinced it was his sheer strength and determination that brought him back.

And it was that brush with death a year ago that changed Trevor’s life and set him on the path to fame.

He started writing poems about life, love and any subject that happened to pop into his head, starting off just for the amusement of his grandchildren, Cole and Meggie.

Trevor, who lives in the Brunshaw area of Burnley, said: “They liked my verses and they said they were funny so I decided to carry on.”

From cats and wives to Theresa May and the Olympic Games, any subject is game for Trevor who loves to rap in tradtional style donning sunglasses, a baseball cap and a t-shirt emblazoned with his nickname and a picture of himself. He writes his raps so they can be sung or read as stand alone poems.

Always ready with a witty comment or a jokey tale to tell, Trevor admits the rapping keeps him young and his mind off the pain and debilitating nature of his ailments which include arthritis and asthma.

Trevor, who has one daughter, Charlotte, can also draw on a lifetime of different careers for rap material, including a spell at Yorkshire Television where he fitted carpets in the fictional pub The Woolpack for the popular soap Emmerdale.

And it could all have been so different if Trevor had followed his original path to be a priest.

He went for training in Darlington and was there for some time after leaving the former St Theodore’s RC High School in Burnley. But a visit home put paid to all that when he discovered girls,alcohol and socialising.

Trevor joked: “They rang to ask me when I was going back so I had to make up an excuse. I don’t think it would have worked out for me as a priest.”