A moment that changed me: I gave up meat at 16 – and learned how to say no

Ibecame a pescatarian when I was 16. At the time, I wasn’t aware of any other vegetarians or pescatarians in my family or peer group, but it seemed like an obvious choice for me.

It was the 1980s and BSE – the spread of which would soon result in a national crisis – had recently appeared in the UK. Emerging evidence and research indicated that eating meat could be detrimental to a person’s health. That, added to the horrific smell that wafted from the nearby tannery in Yarm and an abattoir just up the road in Stockton-on-Tees, was enough to convince me that eschewing meat was the right call.

It seems hard to imagine now, but my decision was regarded as extremely strange by my loved ones, a definite sign of audacious insurrection. Nonconformity wasn’t something that was especially value