Twenty-eight years a working GP, former partner, and trainer of 23 years, then locum, now salaried GP in Gillingham. I was a founding member of the European Medical Students Association in 1990, Mess President and Place of Work Accredited Representative as a junior doctor implementing the 1993 New Deal. I joined Wiltshire Local Medical Committee in 1998 at the time my first husband left me with two pre-school children. I was South Wiltshire Professional Executive Committee deputy chair in 2000 and did the RCGP National Leadership Programme. I was nationally elected to RCGP Council, and the UK General Practitioners Committee (GPC) in 2002. I was appointed to the Standing Commission on Carers in 2008 and helped implement the Carers strategy. In 2009 I was awarded Fellowship of the RCGP, 2014 fellowship of the BMA and 2018 honorary membership of the Faculty of Public Health of the RCP for my environmental work. At the BMA I was the first woman to chair a regional council and third female chief officer (2019-2021). until the summer. I identified and led on mitigating the covid-pandemic for doctors.
My experience in representation at the UK GPC committee makes me acutely aware of the need for broad participation, as BMA chief officer I set in in action the Romney enquiry into sexism and Network of Elected Women. I was policy GPC (and BMA) lead for education, training and workforce.