I HAD never been to Millport until I visited a friend on holiday, about nine years ago, and fell in love with the place. My parents didn’t even bring me here on day trips. I was a bit annoyed about that when I finally got here. I feel like I missed out.

Around four and a half years ago, I was preparing for my father, Jim McGregor, to move in with me so I could help with his care. On the day the removal vans were due to load up all his stuff, he fell ill and was taken into hospital. He died a few days later. He would have absolutely loved living here, but it wasn’t to be.

My previous life was in Glasgow, as director of Hopscotch Theatre Company, which I ran for 23 years. I’d been working a long period of notice at Hopscotch, keen to make sure we found the right person to take over, and I was jobhunting at the same time.

I remember saying to a friend that if I ended up cleaning toilets, that would be fine. She was the one who spotted the advert for this job and sent it to me.

People call me the Cumbrae Cludgie Cleaner, and I’m fine with that. I started the videos because I thought people might be interested in the island, and what I do. I have done some on the less attractive parts of the job (probably best glossed over in a family newspaper) but they are about much more.

They tell the stories of the people of the island, and the day-trippers and holidaymakers; and hopefully people will see Cumbrae’s beauty spots and hidden gems through the eyes of someone who loves it dearly.

Cumbrae is a beautiful place, full of community spirit, wonderful people and fantastic views. I can stand on the beach and look out to Ailsa Craig and Portencross Castle; the seals in the harbour and Arran.

I can see dozens of sailing boats and yachts moored in the bay, and the little islands known as the Eileans. On a few occasions, the tide is low enough to walk and wade out to them – we did a few weeks ago and the craic was fantastic.

Meeting so many different people, from all over the world, has been an unexpected joy of this job. Last week I bumped into a young couple who had just got engaged. He had proposed to her on the beach, in the exact spot where they met six years before.

I got a tour of the puffer which came to the island, and that was magical – the old willow-patterned crockery, the working gramophone inside.

I’m touched by the support I have had from local businesses, who have donated lots of gifts such as flowers and toiletries for me to distribute around the public loos. I put handcream and flowers in the gents – why shouldn’t they have nice loos too? One woman even knitted me a mini-Suki doll.

It’s lovely – I’m working on my own, most of the time, apart from Graham the plumber and the handsome man from Scottish Water who pops out whenever there’s a blockage.”

ANN FOTHERINGHAM