When I was a child, I wanted to be a session guitarist and indeed my favourite hobby now is playing the guitar! At school I enjoyed sports, playing the guitar, socialising and the most valuable lesson I learned was that it’s about making the most of the all-round experience, it’s not just all about exam results. Colston’s School provided me with the opportunity to form long standing and valued friendships with guys as I was previously at an all-girls school until I went to Colston’s for sixth form.

After school I briefly attended Royal Holloway and Bedford New College in 1992. I have lived in Lancashire, Bristol. Egham and Somerset and I have one grown up daughter

My career has represented hard work and has been successful and rewarding. Professionally I am most proud of totally changing tack aged forty-eight and gaining a Master Diploma in Personal Training, Life Coaching and Gym Instruction after years of working for pensions software houses. A valuable lesson which I have learned in my career is that a company’s success depends on the right leaders being in place and I would say that the key to professional success is being understanding of others, trustworthy, reliable, responsible, hardworking and maintaining a sense of humour. My favourite memory from my career so far is probably working for a company more than twenty years ago, pre-e-mails, where there was great team of people based in a lovely location in an old mill next to a river. There was no one particular event, just happy memories of people working well together contributing towards the success of a company and enjoying each other’s humour, support and company. If I could give a younger person career advice, I would say to think about what you enjoyed doing as a young child and why. Investigate what career options are available that allow you to work in a field that you hold a passion or interest in.

I am passionate about health and well-being, equal opportunities, protecting wildlife and nature, various charities including Brain Tumour Support, AMMF and Worldwide Cancer Research and you may not know that I have summitted Mont Blanc. Since joining the OC Committee I’ve enjoyed the company (obviously!) and feeling like I’m still connected to the school.