In the year Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, more than 10,000 11-year-olds in Britain were asked to write essays predicting what they would be doing in 25 years time.

It was 1969 and Sheppey schoolboy Paul Hoggins was one of the writers.

Over the years, the National Child Development Study team kept in touch with the children and now, aged 60, the “baby-boomers” all born in the same week of March, 1958, have revealed how they have fared in the past 50 years.

Pictures and stories of five of them appeared in the Daily Mail - the newspaper on which Paul still works three days a week.

But in his 1969 essay, journalism didn’t feature at all.

And his original plan of becoming a lawyer had already lost its appeal.

“How boring,” he wrote in a pretend diary.

“All I do is sit reading books. Why couldn’t I have been a miner instead of a lawjer (sic) who doesn’t do a thing?”

Paul, who still lives in Sheerness with this fitness instructor wife Amanda, had forgotten writing the essay until he was sent a photocopy to comment on as part of the ongoing study.

His wife Amanda laughed when she read it and said it explained a lot.

Paul admitted: “For an 11-year-old, there’s quite a dose of cynicism there.

"But I always enjoyed creative writing and English.”

Now a father-of-three with four grandchildren he is semi-retired after spending 20 years with the Daily Telegraph.

But as a young man with a degree in business studies, he hadn’t considered a career in journalism, but when a reporter’s job came up on a Sittingbourne paper he never looked back.

He said: “When a junior reporter’s job came up on a Sittingbourne paper I applied and never looked back."

His older brother also became a journalist and one of Paul’s sons has followed in his footsteps.

He recalled: “I must have been in my first year at the Sheerness Technical High School for Boys in the Broadway, having transferred from Delamark Road Primary School, when I wrote that essay.

"I later went to the new Sheppey Comprehensive School. It was a time of real change.”

He added: “I’ve met members of the study team but never the other children who took part. I’m happy to continue, if needed.”

Paul has created montages of Sheppey for the Cottage of Curiosities in Rose Street, Sheerness, and until recently played for the Sheppey Casuals football team at Halfway.

He said: “I still keep fit with regular running.”

With a fitness instructor wife, there’s little chance he’ll settle for slippers instead of trainers any time soon.