I am a qualified teacher with a degree. I have been trained by IPSEA and by ACE and continuously update my knowledge by attending short courses.

I have been advocating for parents and children for over 9 years and have helped hundreds of parents to obtain what their child needs by helping them understand their legal rights and to feel empowered with this knowledge.

I have an excellent success rate!

I was in my 40s when I fell pregnant with my daughter-my only daughter and refused any tests or scans except those which were important for my health or the health of the baby.

I went into labour whilst taking my children to school. My sister and I left for the hospital. By some amazing chance the top midwife was on duty and kept coming in and out of the room. When I finally gave birth it was she that asked me if my new daughter looked like anyone else in the family. I didn't know! She was a little girl and after 3 boys I was overjoyed and didn't notice that they kept counting the fingers or so I thought. In fact they were looking for the tell tale Downs crease.

My husband visited with our 3 boys and I had to tell him over their heads in a half whisper that our daughter had Down's syndrome. He looked at me in shock and I saw across his forehead the word 'Institution'.

I was kept a while in hospital with my daughter as she was jaundiced and was not feeding well but we were finally released into the unknown. How I cried and cried and read and read. I wanted to know everything there was to know but I learnt the hard way-through experience.

Our little daughter had everything that was in the books about Downs, Duodenal Atresia, hole in the heart, sleep apnoea, problems with her sight and her hearing, adenoids and tonsil removal at a very young age, twice on life support machine, failure to thrive to name but a few and that was all in her first two years of life.

Then out of the blue, praying hard and asking for another healthy baby, one literally came my way with a phone call and before we knew it we had fostered a fairly healthy boy with Down's Syndrome who we have now adopted.

How did I get into Advocacy work?

We had to fight our own battles, we couldn't afford to pay a solicitor and so my bedtime reading became the Code of Practice and the Education Act. I wrote my own appeal to Tribunal and we represented ourselves.

Once people heard of our success we started to receiving calls from people asking advice. I realised that many people just don't have the strength to continuously fight don't know where to go to find out what is available and don't know who to trust.