![[It's me!]](mugshot.jpg)
My sister, Tina, passed away on 3 February 2016, at the age of 33, thereby joining joins my mother, Alison, who went to heaven in 1998 aged 38. Both had a heart condition, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which runs in the family.
I spend a lot of time on the computer. The things I use it for include playing games, programming, word processing, graphics, e-mail communication and writing web pages like the one you are reading now.
I’ve been good at maths for a while, as you’ll see from the next section. As well as having studied the subject at every academic level, I sometimes do mathematical experiments in my spare time.
I have a few little talents to impress my friends with. Like telling them what day of the week they were born on. I learned to solve solve Rubik’s Cube at the age of 11, and have a collection of twisty puzzles most of which I can solve but a few of which I'm still trying to figure out.
I can play the piano. I studied up to grade 4 at school, but for years after that I missed out on the chance to develop further. Eventually I was accepted on my university’s music tuition scheme, so I managed to get back into it for a while. Now I’m no longer being taught, but at least my musical talent isn’t going to waste, as I’ve become a keyboardist for the music group at the church I attend in Loughborough.
I am a Ceroc dancer. This is good fun and is something that keeps me active both physically and socially.
From 1991 up until 1996, I was at More House School, near Farnham. I didn’t get on well there, and for some obscure reason they didn’t let me do many GCSEs. But I did get to do my GCSE maths at the early age of 13, before doing it at A-level when I turned 16.
Then for the next three years came Hereward College of Further Education, Coventry. I studied for an Advanced GNVQ in Information Technology, alongside which I did GCSE English and City & Guilds Photography. And developed a few independent living skills.
I then took on BSc Mathematics and Computing at Loughborough University. In my course I learned quite a lot of new things, and indeed a fair number of old things, if that makes sense. In the end I graduated with first class honours, and am very pleased with this.
I then stayed on at Loughborough to do a PhD in Mathematical Sciences, researching Atomistic Modelling of Diffusion, which I finished in 2006.
Since then, I’ve been employed in software development on and off. The first time, it was for e-commerce company Sapio Solutions, at the time based in Long Eaton. The second job was with the Derby-based software house Dataknight. Then came Inspired Gaming in Birmingham. Now I work in Nottingham for Calyx (which has recently broken away from Parexel), which specialises in software for managing clinical trials.