I’m a supply teacher, freelance writer and part-time PhD student. I’m also a mum to three young children, including one with complex extra additional needs.

Aside from the paid work, I love a good community campaign: since the beginning of the pandemic I’ve been working with the St. John Ambulance as a volunteer vaccinator across almost all the East Kent hubs. I’ve also been running a laptop refurbishment project for people in need; we’ve distributed over 1000 laptops to families, schools, older people, refugees, the NHS and other partners. All these donated and refurbished laptops have gone out across East Kent. I’ve also co-ordinated a campaign to raise funds to fix up a local dilapidated playground: we are now fully funded and I’m so excited to bring more accessible and exciting play equipment to my community.

I volunteer as a school governor in two schools: one primary and one secondary. As a firm believer in electoral reform, I am also on the Executive of Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform and involved with the national project Mums for Lungs.

Before I took a side step to go back to study and take on paid writing and research work, I was a full time secondary school English and Drama teacher for over ten years. I taught in a whole range of school settings: from struggling academies to the most elite private schools in the country – I’ve seen the whole spectrum of education provision. During holidays I often squeezed in some exam marking, or textbook copy-writing to help top up my wage.

I love a bit of sea swimming, but I’m still not brave enough to go in winter. I’m still worried about the effect of Southern Water sewage spills on Kent’s water quality. Our coast is an incredible amenity that means so much to me; we need to do more to stop profits being put before our environment.