Mother-of-three Denise McCallum is a modern-day detective. And despite the high-tech gadgets at her disposal, she often resorts to good old-fashioned sleuthing methods, she tells Chris Rooney.

BEING a real-life private eye bears no resemblance to what you see on TV, according to detective Denise McCallum.

“I’ve never once had to roll over a car bonnet,” she says. “Mind, I was once chased down the street by a man wielding a snooker cue.”

The 42-year-old mother of three, from Northallerton, has been a private investigator for two years and it’s been a roller-coaster ride. A lot of her work involves finding missing people and she says there is nothing more satisfying than bringing a family back together.

“That’s if they want to be reunited,”

she says. “Sometimes they don’t.

Cases don’t always have a happy ending.

You see the full spectrum of the human experience. People disappear for all sorts of reasons; financial worries, relationship problems, depression.

Sometimes the reason for someone’s disappearance remains a mystery.”

When asked how she goes about finding a missing person, Denise is determined to keep secret the tricks of the trade. “I can’t tell you that,”

she says.

What she will say is that the internet – especially social networking sites – has revolutionised her work.

“One of my first cases was through Twitter. Someone asked if there were any private detectives out there, and I was,” she says.

Denise recalls a couple of her cases which had the sort of happy ending that makes her job worthwhile.

“A lady, we’ll call her June, came to me for help. She was adopted in 1953 and wanted to find her natural mother who was of German nationality,”

she explains.

“June suspected that her mother had changed her name – being German wasn’t likely to win you a popularity poll in post-war Britain. And June’s dad was Italian, so this wasn’t exactly great parentage in the years following the Second World War.

“Anyway, I managed to locate the father, who was living in Liverpool.

It turned out that June had a sister she knew nothing about and was astounded.

When they met up, there were tears of happiness. I stood in the background, beaming broadly. It was very satisfying.”

In another case, a young man called Edward came to Denise for help. Edward had been fostered in the Eighties but had lost touch with his foster family. Many years later, he was desperate to find them, and Denise did just that for him. The result was another very happy and moving reunion.

“Sometimes I find someone in a very short time, maybe an hour or two, but on other occasions it takes several months and a lot of perseverance,”

she says. “It’s not always easy to switch off from work in the evening. Occasionally I’ve even dreamt of a solution to a difficult case.”

There are approximately 1,600 private detectives in the UK registered with the Information Commissioner.

But isn’t it dangerous work?

“I talk a lot,” Denise laughs. “Despite my verbal abilities, however, I’ve been chased a couple of times and on one occasion was pinned up against a wall by an irate lady. And then there was the time I had to flee a pub and dive into a car, driven by my colleague, as it screeched away.

“Private detectives work a lot together, especially on surveillance cases. This sometimes means having to pretend to be a married couple. In fact, I make a great pretend wife. Private investigators have skills in particular areas and so we pool our expertise and knowledge.”

This includes using high-tech gadgets that would have 007 raising an impressed eyebrow, such as tracking devices and surveillance equipment.

Specialist websites provide all the gadgets any self-respecting private detective needs, though Denise was once rather alarmed to come across an advert for body bags.

But it is often just a case of using the kind of old school skills that the master himself, Humphrey Bogart, would have recognised. “You tend to find yourself trailing people, by car or on foot,”

says Denise. “The ability not to be spotted comes in handy and I’ve honed my skills in window shopping.”

As for her own favourite, fictional private detective, the diminutive and bubbly Denise says that would have to be Miss Marple.

■ Detective Denise Tel: 01609-531-030 Email: denise@detectivedenise.co.uk detectivedenise.co.uk

Worrying for Britain

WORRYING has become a national pastime with the average Briton wasting around two years of their life on those nagging doubts, according to a new survey by energy supplier npower. On average, we fret and agonise over problems seven times a day, for at least eight minutes on each occasion.

More than half say that worrying about the little things gets in the way of enjoying life and 52 per cent felt that 2010 had been a particularly worrying year.

Richard Cotton, head of sales for npower hometeam, says: ‘‘Our survey shows that Britons have a lot on their mind at the moment, but it’s important to keep things in perspective and not let worries get in the way of enjoying life.’’ That’s perhaps easier said than done. While doctors and mental health experts acknowledge that anxiety levels always peak at this time of year – with the stress of a new year looming – our woes have been further added to by the cold snap.

‘‘Worrying is a huge problem in society and at its worst it can lead people to wrongly use all sorts of toxic remedies such as alcohol, drugs or food to try to mask or damp down their anxiety,’’ says Dr Martin Rossman, author of The Worry Solution (Rider Books, £9.99, available February), which reveals a strategy for dealing with anxiety and worrying. ‘‘In fact, worrying can be extremely positive if it’s used properly. It’s a natural problem solving and survival skill.

Unfortunately, all too often people allow it to lapse into just a bad habit.’’ Worrying becomes negative and counterproductive, he explains, if it only involves endlessly ruminating about the same issues without any result.

Instead, he suggests, we use methods to ‘worry well’ by first identifying our worries and dividing them into those we could or would be willing to do something about, and those that we feel powerless to solve.

‘‘This helps people feel less muddled and overwhelmed,’’ he says. ‘‘Once you feel more positive and focused you’re much more likely to be energised and able to act.’’

TOP TEN WORRIES

1. cost of living;

2. lack of money;

3. illness;

4. personal health;

5. not being able to pay a bill;

6. remembering to lock the house;

7. having enough money set aside for a rainy day;

8. putting on weight;

9. spending too much money;

10. upsetting someone.

■ Anxiety UK helpline: 08444-775-774; anxietyuk.org.uk