WE all have those teachers who leave a lasting impact on our hearts, but very rarely do we get to tell them how much they mean to us.

So Labour MP Wes Streeting was taken aback when he spotted a teacher who “changed his life” in the audience at the launch of his autobiography.

The shadow health secretary visited Essex University’s Lakeside Theatre on Friday as part of this year’s Essex Book Festival.

Among the 100-strong audience was Wes’s former Year 6 teacher Dorothy Eden, who taught him at St Peter’s Primary School, in Tower Hamlets, London.

Gazette: Event - Wes Streeting was joined by his mother Corinna and Colchester's Labour parliamentary candidate Pam CoxEvent - Wes Streeting was joined by his mother Corinna and Colchester's Labour parliamentary candidate Pam Cox (Image: Colchester Labour)

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He told her: “You changed my life. You saw something in me and put me on the right track.”

Speaking at the event, the 40-year-old described how his life could have gone in a very different direction, having grown up in east London with little money around.

In his book ‘One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry Up’, which has just been published, he praises his former teacher and tells how she steered him towards success.

Colchester councillor Pam Cox, who interviewed Wes on the night, said: “It was a surprisingly emotional evening. We had Wes’s mum as well as his former teacher in the audience and it felt like we really learned what makes him tick.”