My life may seem ordinary, having committed most it to public service, however, it has led to a tremendous amount of satisfaction and most importantly friendships.

I enjoyed an idyllic childhood in Nottinghamshire and after school went to Leicester to study Applied Biology. Thinking ahead about my career, I followed this up with a further degree in Pharmacy at Bradford university. After we married, my husband and I moved to a Leicestershire village and I started working as a pharmacist, working both in retail and hospital gaining experience as a clinical pharmacist and also in pharmaceutical manufacturing. I have always enjoyed studying and becoming restless, I started to study part time for a degree in Law while working. I graduated 5 years later and having put in so much work, I decided to pursue a career in Law. Initially I worked in Leicester but then had the opportunity to move to the beautiful county of Cornwall and use my clinical skills to work in the area of medical negligence. Another benefit was being able to indulge our passion for sailing which living in Falmouth was perfect. After working as a solicitor for 5 years, I felt I needed a change and by chance the local hospital needed pharmacists. I took up a post which combined managing a medicines information unit and providing a clinical service to a critical care unit and it was where I stayed for the next 20 years. During this time I became one of the first pharmacist prescribers in the U.K. I completed a masters in communicating science and also became a consultant pharmacist in critical care.
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A very satisfying career but it was always our intention to move to France. We fell in love with France when my sister moved to Strasbourg in 1975 and when we moved to Cornwall my husband and I observed that we were now nearer to France. We started to look for areas where we might like to live and started making our way down western France. It was a chance meeting with a friend of my sister in Bergerac which made us realise that the Dordogne was an area of interest and many years later, here we are. We eventually bought our house in 2005 and set about renovations. Life inevitably intervenes and we were unable to move here permanently until 2018 and have not regretted the move and the friendships we have made. Not by accident, houses we have lived in have had gardens which have given us lots of pleasure. Today the challenges are different but no less enjoyable, particularly the potager. While gardening takes a lot of my time, I’m also learning to play bridge. It’s never too late to learn something new.