As a sports mad kid growing up in North London, I was a huge fan of a programme called Grandstand. It was presented by the great Des Lynam and was a wonderful eclectic mix of whatever was on that Saturday afternoon. You might think I dreamed of one day presenting it, but no, women didn’t do that kind of thing. There weren’t female sports reporters or presenters, I headed down the news journalism route. Even when I first joined the BBC working in sport wasn’t my ambition. But, against the odds, I became the Sports Reporter for the BBC regional television news in Yorkshire and that’s how it all began. I was on a steep learning curve and it was lonely... not only were there no other women doing what I was doing in the north, but most of the newsroom looked down on sport, it appeared on the programme but they weren’t interested in it.

I ploughed on, learned my craft and the job gave me amazing opportunities. I’ve covered two Olympics, in London and Rio, the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and got to follow the stories of so many amazing athletes and teams – I won’t name drop! It also afforded me the chance to work in Rugby League where I’ve presented a huge number of live games, the greatest buzz I get. The highlight was the 2021 World Cup (eventually played in 2022) held here in England where we showed all the matches across the men’s women’s and wheelchair tournaments on a BBC platform. It was as that came to an end that I decided it was time for a change and early in 2023 I went freelance. I wanted to mix things up, challenge myself to do new things, use the skills I had, but in different arenas.

I’m lucky that I continue to work on Rugby League and in sport, but I’m now working across a whole host of areas – business, technology, health and many more. I love interviewing people, it doesn’t matter what the subject, it’s story telling which is always at the heart of everything I’ve done.

Away from work I’m a mum, wife, love walking, training and I’m lucky that I still love sport so my job has to some extent also been my hobby! I’m also patron of the West Yorkshire branch of Motor Neurone Disease Association. In 2019 I did the interview with Rob Borrow where he chose to tell the world that a few days before he’d been diagnosed with it. It was the hardest, but in retrospect, most important interview I’ve ever done. We continue the work he’s started to give the MND community a voice, to help care from them and fight like hell to find a cure.