(The Daily Mail) David Thomas failed all his maths exams and left school with no qualifications, yet this 30 - year - old fire - fighter has just gone into the Guinness Book of Records by reciting from memory 22,500 digits of the mathematical constant, pi(p). After five months of training, in which he spent ten hours a day memorizing a quarter of a million digits, David Thomas took part in a 16 - hour mental battle.Witnesses watched in awe as Thomas set a new European record, earning the title 'Most Powerful Memory in the Western Hemisphere'. David says,  "When I was at school I was hopeless.I could' t remember anything, but now I can remember more facts than anyone in Europe." So how does Thomas do it? "One night I was watching a TV programme about an interview with a man called Dominic O'Brien, who had been the world memory champion five times.He used to be a gambler, and he wasn't particularly successful until he developed his own mnemonics, or mental memory aid, for each card in order to remember which cards had already been dealt and which ones hadn't." Thomas became fascinated by O'Brien's theory that anyone can improve their memory by using specialized techniques.These techniques involve linking everything to familiar people or objects. "If you want to remember a phone number for example, you have to give the numbers life.Sometimes I associate a number with a person.Number 10 for me is always the Prime Minister (who lives at number 10 Downing Street) ," explained David.If David is trying to remember facts he also links them to an image."For instance, if I was trying to memorize the name 'Tom Cruise' , I would think of his film Top Cun, and that leads me to images of guns and cruise missiles." is soon going to appear on TV's Record Breakers, and this week he is teaching memory training and speed - writing at Huddersfield University.His fees are PS600 a day.He is sure that the future holds a lot more for him than a job as a fire - fighter. What do Thomas's techniques involve?
Linking everything to familiar people or objects. Spending ten hours a day memorizing stuff. Remembering a number in a vivid context. Associating a fact with a person.