Ever since I was a young child I was intrigued by the natural world. Growing up with a family that was lucky enough to travel to distant places, I soon began to experience the diversity our Earth holds and knew it was something I wanted to build a life around protecting it.
Education is the key to conservation. There cannot be effective conservation methods without effective education programmes, and there cannot be effective education programmes without effective conservation methods. Conservation and education work hand in hand.
After graduating with a BSc(Hons) in Zoology I worked within informal and formal environmental education settings in England, with a short stint of field research at a remote base in Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica. This led me to work in Southern Thailand on as a Coastal Conservation Project Coordiantor for an international volunteer organisation, where I lived in a small fishing village for two years, training volunteers on coastal conservation methods, research projects, sea turtle conservation and environmental education.
During September of 2017 I visited Koh Tao on a work trip and decided to extend it into a short vacation and complete my PADI Open Water Diver Course at Master Divers. With thorough training and an unbelievable introduction to a part of our world we rarely see, the love for the sport began to grow.
The dream? To combine my experience in environmental conservation and project development alongside diving to provide people with a unique experiential learning opportunity.
After returning to England in 2018, I continued to dive, completing my PADI Dry Suit Speciality and my PADI Rescue Diver course. During this time, the dream started to manifest itself. A competition by Master Divers appeared on my Facebook news feed. I entered the three stage contest and eventually made it through each round to the finals. My blog was voted the best out of ten finalists for the Master Divers Life contest and I not only did I win all of the training needed up to PADI Instructor Development Course, a won a collection of top of the range equipment, donated by Aqualung.
Four weeks later I was back on Koh Tao and settling in to begin my PADI Divemaster training. By the end of 2018 I was a qualified instructor and spent some time working as an Eco-Instructor at Master Divers.
In 2019, I gained the recognition as an PADI Elite Instructor with over 150 certifications.
I joined the Shark Guardian team as a Trustee in 2020, became a founding ambassador for Ocean Bottle, and am currently working full time for a UK based environmental & wellbeing charity.
