as part of the mirror group training scheme campbell spent a year at a local weekly paper and he quickly became the sports editor at the "tavistock times", writing a column called 'campbell's corner'. it was while he was at the "tavistock times" he met his partner fiona millar, with whom he has three children; two sons (born november 1987 and july 1989) and a daughter (born may 1994). however, his first significant contribution to the news pages was coverage of the penlee lifeboat disaster in december 1981, while a trainee on the plymouth-based "sunday independent", then owned by mirror group newspapers.