I qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 1984 and as a Midwife in1987. Through my work as a midwife and brief experience of working in research in another field, I became interested in the role research had to play. At that time there were few opportunities for nurses to work in research so when I saw an advert in 1991 for a research nurse/midwife to work at the MRC on a study of nutrition in pregnancy among Southampton mothers it seemed just the job I was looking for. I worked principally on two studies in this area. In 1997 I was asked if I wanted to be involved with a new large study – the Southampton Women’s Survey.

The prospect of working on such a large important and unique study was really exciting. Initially I was involved in helping to set up the study. We had to look into the basics like where we could house such a large team of nurses and other study staff.  At our maximum we had 38 nurses at one time carrying out the initial home visits. Currently we are a smaller team of nine nurses, of which five are involved in the SWS.

As well as working with such a good team of loyal staff, what has kept me motivated over the years has been the enjoyment of meeting the women and their families, without whose dedication and support it would not have been possible to carry out what seemed like the impossible!