I was born in East Yorkshire/Humberside (whichever it happens to be at the moment) in 1975. When I was 10 we moved to Lancashire for a few months and then onto Gwynedd where I spent the rest of my childhood.

Eventually I decided to go to university and chose to study microbiology at the University of Manchester, which I thoroughly enjoyed, so much so that I went to Glasgow to do a PhD in molecular parasitology. I wrote a hefty thesis called 'Mismatch Repair in DNA Recombination and Antigenic Variation in Trypanosoma brucei' and published two scientific papers - one in Molecular Microbiology and the other in The Journal of Biological Chemistry. Obviously I couldn't have achieved any of this without the help of my superb supervisor, Richard McCulloch, and the rest of the WUMP team. After a one year postdoc upstairs in Darren Monckton's lab I came to a major career junction - should I stay or should I go? It happens to most scientists I think.

After a great deal of umming and arghing (as my Dad would put it), I decided to leave science and go into administration and so I got a job in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of East Anglia in Norfolk. While living in Norfolk I was acquired by a cat - Flumpy. Flumpy was great, if a little strange, but very sadly he passed away shortly before I was due to return to Lancashire to live with my sister. (UEA was a terrible employer so I handed my notice in, sold my house and left Norwich behind, but hopefully not forever, as Norfolk is a beautiful county with lovely people.)

I currently work at a university in the northwest of England helping to recruit new students. It's generally a good place to work and is keen on staff development. This is how I got into web authoring. I'm in charge of looking after the university webpages for prospective students among other things. This site grew out of my desire to develop more than simple web editing skills and understand the code behind it all. Or at least try to.

Apart from that I live in Manchester with my lovely boyfriend Mark, who's a music teacher. We have a lot in common, but a hell of a lot of differences too which keeps things interesting.