DAN Hewitt was left feeling pretty good after he fought his way to the top at Stoke's Top Talent.

The 21-year-old thrilled a sell-out crowd at Hanley's Regent Theatre with his performance of Nina Simone's big hit Feeling Good.

And he was ecstatic when judges handed him his first professional performing contract and £2,000.

He said: "It is the best thing in my life and I have never felt so proud for me and my family.

"I have got my dream. All I have wanted in my life is to be a professional singer and I can now say to my kids that I have done it.

"It is going to change my life massively."

More than 1,600 people saw the debt collector embrace host Jonathan Wilkes after seeing off hundreds of other acts to win the 2008 competition.

After watching him perform, producer Kevin Wood told Dan: "There are very few things that one can be certain of, but I think you have collected your last debt."

He will now appear alongside the entertainer and former soapstar Claire Sweeney in more than 50 performances of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs later this year.

Jonathan said: "I thought that he raised the bar.

"He got up there and put in a top performance to win the final.

"He was amazing and I am looking forward to working with him."

Dan, from Shardlow Close, Fenpark, has been singing since the age of six and has spent years trying to make it as a professional.

He has performed in numerous shows and competitions, including The X Factor, but on Saturday night he finally got the big chance he had been waiting for.

He said: "I got told as a kid that I would be a pub singer, but I kept fighting for it and I have finally reached my dream of being a professional.

"I felt like I was in a dream, that it wasn't me who was singing. I just did it like a robot and it only really came to me when I was thinking how I could finish my song and I decided to thank everyone."

Dan, who likes swing, soul and Motown, will turn on Christmas lights in Hanley and Stone and will perform at The Sentinel's Our Heroes awards later this month.

The amateur boxer will also post a regular blog on the Sentinel's website as he gears up towards panto season.

Dan was presented with a £1,000 cheque by the Editor-in-Chief of The Sentinel Mike Sassi and a further £1,000 from an anonymous benefactor who had been impressed by the quality of entrants.

Then he promptly won over even more supporters by immediately pledging to hand half his winnings to the Donna Louise Trust.

His proud mum Bev, a placement support worker aged 43, said: "When he donated that money I wasn't a little bit surprised because that is exactly what he is like.

"I just feel that it is about time he won something like this. It has been a long, long time coming for him and Dan has worked so incredibly hard for what seems like forever."

Dad Shaun, aged 47, who has a window cleaning business, said: "I have been overwhelmed.

"He has been trying for 16 years to do something for himself and to win something.

"I am really happy because he is such a lovely lad - and such a lovely son - I am just so glad that he has achieved something as big and important as this."

Dan said he would have to give up his job at npower in Stoke, but added that boss Colleen Hughes had been cheering him on from the crowd.

Also present were sister Michaela, aged 20, and 18-year-old brother Jake.

He said: "I won't be working, which is amazing really because I like what I am doing but it is not my dream.

"It is a day-to-day thing and I never wanted to be a day-to-day-person."

The final was a thrilling success and organisers said they could have sold the venue out twice over as excitement built during last week's heats.

As well as the panel of well-known judges, darts ace Phil Taylor also came along to offer his support to the ten finalists.

He said: "I was looking forward to it and wasn't disappointed. They were all brilliant"

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs will run at the Regent Theatre from December 11 to January 11.