IT was the night of the 1979 general election and 13-year-old Sharon Hodgson stayed up all night to watch Margaret Thatcher's Conservative party sweep to power. Her mother burst into tears and her cousin decided to emigrate to Australia.

"I was aware that something massive was happening, something that was having a massive impact on the people I knew. I didn't realise it at the time but that was my first political memory," she says.

Sharon, a 38-year-old mother of two, has just been selected to fight the Gateshead East and Washington West seat for Labour when Joyce Quin steps down at the next election and although she's not counting her chickens, it looks almost certain she'll be the next MP. Articulate, down-to-earth and very talkative - our phone interview lasts almost two hours - she's incredibly excited at the prospect of returning home.

Sharon was born in Gateshead. Her parents divorced when she was eight, leaving her mother to bring up Sharon and her two younger brothers. When their flat was repossessed, they were forced to move to the now- demolished St Cuthbert's Village on the banks of the Tyne, which Sharon describes as a "horrible place to live".

"I had a hard, working-class upbringing. My life changed from a stable, middle-class family and then all of a sudden, we were in this one-parent family and quite poor. With three children under eight, my mam couldn't work so there was no money coming in. Later, she had a part-time job at the bingo but she could only earn £8 a week before she started losing her benefits. She was caught in the benefit trap. It was like that for a lot of people at that time but you couldn't be in that position now because of all the benefits and child care allowances."

It's an issue she feels strongly about, as she does about education. Sharon got eight O-Levels and went into the sixth form at Heathfield Senior High School. "I wanted to go to university. Even as a kid, I realised that it was through education that I could ever make a difference."

But circumstances conspired against her and she left a few weeks later to start work as an accounts clerk with a company in the Team Valley.

"My nana couldn't understand why I went back to school. I had my qualifications and she thought I should be out working. My mam dropped subtle hints as well, so I did start work. I earned £60 a week. I gave £30 to her and kept £30 myself. If I'd stayed at school, I'd have had nothing. This way, everybody benefited but it shouldn't have been like that and I've campaigned for years about this. Kids from poor backgrounds need to be able to study."

Sharon then worked for Northern Rock in Gosforth before returning to the Team Valley as a payroll administrator. In the meantime, she had met Alan, a graphic designer, and the couple had their first child, Joseph, in 1994, followed by a daughter, Emily, the next year.

"I loved work but after I had Joseph, I didn't want to go back. I wanted to be a stay-at-home mam. Apart from it being a fantastic experience, it made me even more political."

While many people at home during the day tune into This Morning, Sharon became hooked on parliamentary broadcasts. She remembers sitting in front of the television, feeding Emily and watching Tony Blair give a speech at a Labour Party conference.

"I remember seeing all these people working for the party and organising things behind the scenes. I knew then that was what I wanted to do. I'm a goal setter so I set myself the goal and really went for it."

She joined the party and volunteered to help with campaigning for the 1997 election, finding herself delivering leaflets in the marginal South Stockton seat. The experience gave her a real taste of campaigning and she became increasingly active in the party on a voluntary basis.

When Emily turned two, she went back to work for an inner city educational charity before spotting an advertisement for trainee organisers for the Labour Party. At first, she wasn't sure - how would it affect the family? But once she had made her mind up, there was no stopping her. Out of 1,000 applicants, she was chosen for one of the 15 posts.

Until then, organisers had been male, middle-aged, working-class and often from a trade union background. New Labour sought to change that. Sharon was one of a "New Model Army" of organisers who were told they were destined for greatness within the party. But while she loved her training, it wasn't without problems.

She spent the year of her training travelling up and down the country while Alan juggled his job with looking after the family. She admits she couldn't have done it without his support.

In 2001, she joined Siobhain McDonagh's team in Mitcham and Morden, living with the MP and her sister Margaret, the Labour Party's general secretary, for a few months, before Alan and the children moved down to London.

"It was just unbelievable. I was privy to so much at that time. Margaret was taking phone calls from the Prime Minister at 8 o'clock in the morning and suddenly this was my normal life. The year before, I'd been making baked beans on toast for the kids."

Her experience in London also encouraged her to take the step to becoming an MP herself. Until then, she had been content to stay behind the scenes but seeing how closely Siobhain worked with the community made her change her mind.

When Joyce Quin announced she was standing down, it was the opportunity Sharon had been looking for.

"I didn't just want to be an MP. I wanted to be MP for Gateshead East and Washington West. I know the area and the people and I want to do the best I can for them. I don't have any ambitions to go further in my career in Westminster - not for a few years anyway. I want to learn my craft and be a good constituency MP."

But Sharon isn't complacent. She knows there's a hard campaign ahead before she's even elected, and she'll be drawing on her organising experience.

"I used to say when I was working on campaigns that you can't expect anyone to vote for you unless you've asked them to, and that's what I'll be doing. I'll be knocking on every single door in the consituency."

And if Sharon says she's going to do something, you can be assured she will.