He's been to America and the Hague.

He plays three instruments and is a web designer. He has just received an award from Essex County Council - and he is only 14.

Tom Middleditch is certainly not your average teenager.

At his home in London Road, Clacton, Tom is busy producing a web site for Nation One, a group of children around the world who communicate via the Internet to raise awareness on issues such as the environment.

Tom's involvement with Nation One began when he was selected to take part in the Junior Summit at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in America last year.

The pupil at St Joseph's College, Ipswich, admitted: "I was a bit nervous at first.

"It was a bit of a hectic week staying up until midnight nearly every day.

"But now I can look back and see what I achieved there."

At the conference Nation One was formed and since then Tom has been working away for the official launch of the group's web site which is due early next year.

After the summit Tom was selected to represent Nation One at an international peace conference in the Hague which was also attended by religious leader Desmond Tutu and UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

In the meantime, there is the little matter of school exams to contend with.

Tom could be about to follow in his father Bill's footsteps as an information technology manager.

Maths and history are also favourite subjects along with science and Tom's mother Pat works as a technician in the science labs at Colbayns School.

But he has hinted there may be an alternative career path in the law.

To sum it up, his vision is endless.

Somehow in between his jetset hi-tech live, Tom has managed to learn to play the piano, clarinet and saxophone.

He has also been on a 15-mile hike for his Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award.

Tom said: "I enjoyed it, but it was hard work."

Essex County Council has also not been slow to recognise Tom's talents.

The Tendring Action Pack Tom produced has helped him win one of the council's Essex Amenity Awards for projects to help with conservation and the environment.

Dates and routes are shown for paper collection as part of the action pack and Tom hopes people will become more environmentally aware after looking at the pack.

Later this summer another adventure awaits when the family travel to India.

The world is his oyster- after he has finished the more immediate challenge of his maths homework.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.