From the age of 10 I always wanted to be a doctor. After school, I secured a place at Aberdeen medical school and during this time I joined the Royal Navy as a medical cadet. After graduation, I worked as the sole doctor on two Royal Navy Destroyers where our tasking ranged from providing disaster relief after a hurricane in the Caribbean to evacuating civilians from a conflict zone in the Middle East. I have worked as the medic onboard Search and Rescue helicopters and during an operational tour in Basra, Iraq, I led a trauma team providing care to combat casualties in the field hospital.
For the last 7 years I have trained to be an anaesthetist in both Devon and Edinburgh. During this training I developed an interest in toxicology and undertook a diploma at Cardiff University and a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. My research interests include studying the effect of organophosphate poisoning (nerve agents or pesticides) on the lung and immune system and the measuring of blast lung injury in casualties hurt by explosions.
I currently work as an anaesthetist in both the NHS and Royal Navy and live in Edinburgh with my amazing husband and two children. I play violin in my local church and love to paint with acrylics.