I was born in 1975 in Cardiff (a proud Welshman!). I’m the third child of Colin and Francis Hancock. I have two older sisters and a younger brother, and five nephews and nieces. I also have a dog, Eric, a retired racing greyhound.

After a pretty normal childhood I went to university in Southampton before joining St Joseph’s Missionary Society, better known as the Mill Hill Missionaries. I studied philosophy in Dublin and Theology in London and was ordained on 19 June 2004. 

After a few years of priesthood, I spent five years in Rome for further
studies and earned a doctorate in Canon Law.

Most of my missionary ministry has been in Cameroon, Central Africa,
where I was in various parishes and ministries for a total of thirteen
years; including working as parish priest of a large, rural parish and
being professor of Canon Law at the major seminary.

I left Cameroon four years ago and, after a year of sabbatical, I moved to Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales working in parish ministry in the
Archdiocese of Cardiff.