Deirdre Bounds, 41, started educational travel firm i-to-i 12 years ago in her flat in Rawdon, Leeds, and has built it into a £8m turnover business with 70 staff and offices in Australia, America and Ireland.

Yesterday the Horsforth-based business was bought by First Choice Holidays which as well as its package holiday operation has a growing adventure travel arm made up of 25 different companies.

i-to-i is the UK's leading provider of what it describes as "meaningful travel experiences" giving travellers the opportunity to carry out voluntary work overseas.

It started out in 1995 offering Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) courses and now sends more than 5,000 people abroad each year which include gap year students as well as professional people on career breaks.

Ms Bounds, who is married with two young children, who celebrated by having pie and mash for lunch yesterday, said she had been courted by First Choice for some time before deciding to sell.

"i-to-i is a company full of passion but we've been out there on our own in this industry and we were a bit war weary. We have now got offices around the world and we needed more distribution channels, which is what First Choice has.

"People always thought I was a bit mad when I started out and could never understand what I was doing – I feel justified now! I always believed in it and thought it was the future."

Ms Bounds, who was the majority shareholder, will stay on as chief executive of i-to-i for six months and then become a non-executive director for two-and-a-half years.

Ms Bounds added: "We're excited, this is an excellent opportunity for a high growth niche organisation such as i-to-i to join a large and well respected travel company. We believe that the expertise we will have access to, will assist us to improve our customer experience and will give us further reach into international markets. Everyone benefits!"

The Leeds office of accountants Ernst & Young advised the shareholders of i-to-i on the deal.

i-to-i is also the world's leading provider of TEFL courses.

Its charity arm, the i-to-i Foundation, provides resources to the most disadvantaged volunteer projects that the business works with throughout the developing world.

More recently, the company has started providing services to corporate organisations which want to engage their employees in overseas volunteering.

It is also developing a range of new offerings, including foreign language courses overseas, personal development and leadership programmes and new TEFL courses and training DVDs.

The Ernst & Young team was led by Tremayne Ducker and included Hamish Morrison and Ian Fionda. Mr Ducker said: "i-to-i is a strong and established brand with an experienced management team and an unparalleled range of both new and established products.

"The business is ideally placed to take advantage of the favourable market conditions and continue to grow its position as a leading provider of meaningful travel experiences and TEFL courses."


Rise and rise of an entrepreneur

Deirdre Bounds gave up her job selling machinery to shoe manufacturers and went backpacking when she was 25 and then taught English in Greece for 18 months.

She set up i-to-i at the age of 30 after returning from her travels and feeling unfulfilled. She started out offering training courses for young people who wanted to teach abroad.

"It was really tough to start with, I did everything, wrote the course, taught it. I had no business plan and I never borrowed a penny." Now it offers activities including tours, volunteer travel projects such as conservation or community work, and work abroad programmes.

Ms Bounds wanted a career as a comedian but after some early success she says she gave up when she "died" in front of an audience of 200 people in Nottingham.

Having already appeared on the TV show Wife Swap, she has just returned from Africa where she took part in a new Channel 4 series which is said to be its biggest budget project this year.

Provisionally titled The Mission, it involves eight entrepreneurs taking charge of voluntary projects in Uganda.

Other than spending time at a house she has just had built in Greece, Ms Bounds said she had not yet made plans for the future other than to spend more time with her family.

She and her actor husband Bryan have two children, including a young baby.