If you take a random cross-section of the people in your life and ask them to choose a number between one and ten, you are likely to find that the number seven is the most popular choice. Why is this?

It is odd that the number seven is associated with many notable facts in history, and is considered a lucky number for many. Without trying, I can think of seven days of the week, seven wonders of the world, seven colours of the rainbow, seven deadly sins and seven heavenly virtues, but if I think just that bit harder I notice that the number seven keeps recurring time and time again in memories throughout my life to date.

Some of my fondest, earlier memories include reading Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven series of adventures. Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs is, of course, a classic as was Trumpton with its seven members of the fire brigade.

Growing up with Bond: James Bond brought 007 into my life. No 7 was the shirt worn by my favourite footballers – Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish, Eric Cantona and David Beckham, not to mention my first idol, John Hall of Bradford City, when I first started going to matches at the tender age of, you guessed it, seven.

At school you learn that Rome was built on seven hills called Palatine, Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian and Aventine; that a heptagon is a seven-sided figure, and that seven is the atomic number for Nitrogen. Somehow I know that the opposite sides of a dice add up to seven, and that the seven of clubs in a deck of Tarot cards represents initiative, ambition, drive and desire.

One of my favourite films must surely be Se7en, starring Brad Pitt, a thriller based on the seven deadly sins. In my wedded bliss, I knew that wool was the ‘symbol’ for our seventh wedding anniversary, and one of the best places to visit is Seventh Avenue in Manhattan.

Many other unusual facts can be found involving the number seven. We all know that superstition has it that if you should break a mirror, seven years’ bad luck will immediately follow, but did you know that there are seven spots on the common ladybird? Did you know that there were seven emperors of the Roman Empire or that seven is ‘neutral’ on the pH scale – where water has a pH of 7.

I will always include my lucky number seven in my lottery tickets, in the quest for success.

I often wonder what other numbers people consider lucky for them, and on what they base their reasoning.