About

Born in Glasgow, I grew up in Inverness, in the Highlands of Scotland. I’ve always been interested in travel, and when I left school I went to India for 6months, with the charity Link Overseas, to work in an orphanage, school, and nursing college. This was followed by eight years in Glasgow, initially gaining an MA Hons in Philosophy and Politics from the University of Glasgow, then working for the charity Mary’s Meals.

Whilst at uni, I took up rowing, initially more for the social life if I’m honest! Whilst I have always enjoyed sport, I was never “sporty”. However, in rowing I found something I was not only quite good at, it was a way of challenging myself that I found both addictive and rewarding.

In 2010, I attended my first GB Rowing Team trial, simply because I loved racing and without any real aim of making the team. Six months later I had left my job, my home, my friends, and moved to London to try and break into the squad. Well, I thought I would forever kick myself if I never tried! I would rather have tried and failed, than not to have tried at all.

What followed was five years of international racing, something I never in a million years would have thought I would be doing. There were sad times and happy times, lessons learnt the easy way and the hard way. I’m not sure whether it is the end of my international rowing career, but what I know is that to continue, I need to explore other sides of me, to feel like “me” again.

I am now in the Maldives for 6months, to develop their rowing program; again, something I would have never ever thought I would end up doing! Follow the blog to see the adventure continue…