Your Career
I am a geography teacher and assistant head of sixth form at an independent day school in Newcastle upon Tyne. I also lead overseas expeditions for World Challenge.
How would you summarise your Swansea University experience?
I spent an enjoyable three years in Swansea making the most of the opportunities to explore the Gower Peninsula.
What are your top 2 favourite things about Swansea?
The Gower Peninsula - a fantastic place to explore with loads of hidden gems and excellent surf spots
The University - an excellent location on the beach and a great place to meet like-minded people
Why did you choose to study your degree at Swansea?
The location right on the doorstep of the Gower Peninsula!
Would you recommend Swansea University to someone thinking of going to University?
Great location, friendly people and supportive staff.
What advice would you give to students who want to pursue your career?
Stick with it! There are loads of opportunities and highlights in a career in teaching but you have to make it through the low points to enjoy them!
How did you end up in Dubai?
My parents moved to Dubai in 1989 to work as teachers. They intended to be there for 3 years but ended up staying until 2018!
How did you get involved with expeditions and where have you been?
As a geographer it is a fairly typical route to get involved with school expeditions. I started with DofE, which I still help out with, and through those expeditions started to build up enough experience to work towards achieving a summer mountain leader award. The ML allowed me to lead overseas expeditions for school groups. My favourite destination so far has been Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan because it is so different to many places I've been before as well as having a fascinating history, culture and physical landscape. I've also been to Nepal, India, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia on school expeditions. They've all had their individual highlights!
How did you get into Para sport?
During the first lockdown I decided to start training for triathlons. Two of my friends from Swansea who I have kept in touch with and been on many surf trips with, James Mitchell and Tim Walker, had started doing them. They twisted my arm into signing up for a middle distance triathlon and I found that I really enjoyed the structured training that the sport requires. I spotted a talent ID campaign on the British triathlon website and submitted some time trial results. It was a steep learning curve at first but I quickly grew in confidence and won the British Championships in July 2021. Since then I've been on the Next Generation pathway and am really enjoying the opportunity to compete in international events.
You’ve won the British PTS5 Triathlon and Duathlon. What do you have your sights on next?
I'm finding that the international events are very competitive. I've just completed in my first World Series event in Montreal and am looking forward to returning to Swansea to compete in my second one in August. Through competing in these events I'm hoping to gaining more experience of competing at this level and to improve my international ranking so that I can enter more events in the future, with the goal for this year being to qualify for the World Championship finals in Abu Dhabi in November.
