I joined One Can Trust, the local food bank charity, during COVID as their Food Procurement Manager and developed strong working relationships within the community to ensure food donations met escalating demand. Having successfully led the food bank as their interim Operations Manager whilst covering a maternity leave, I stepped up permanently into the Operations Manager role and remain in that position to this day. I'm incredibly proud of the close knit team of staff that has been carefully selected and developed to deliver our core services. However, the greatest privilege comes from leading and working with our 300-strong team of volunteers who selflessly give up their time to ensure we support those most vulnerable and struggling in our local community with weekly food parcels.Working for a small charity has provided exposure to many facets of an organisation from team development and stakeholder relationship building to policy writing and web development.

As a Phoenix Trader (and then Flamingo Paperie Partner), I ran a very successful direct selling business from home selling greeting cards, stationery, gifts and wrap. Nationally, I came in the top 3 for personal sales and built a strong team, regularly amongst the top 10 within the country. I loved the personal interaction with team and customers alike, forging strong working relationships.