A Marlborough lass (as my father used to say), born in Marlborough in 1962. I went to St. John's Comprehensive and then on to Swindon College Secretarial School for two years full time and a further year evening classes while working in Wroughton.

I moved to Kuwait in 1983 and worked as a Secretary initially. I was in Kuwait at the time of the Invasion in 1990, single, working as a Personnel Manager for a local Group of Companies.

I spent just over one month in hiding, was shot at, moved from house to house wearing the local dress to hide the fact that I was European. I was eventually evacuated on a dirty old bus up to Baghdad in early September 1990 along with other British women and children. We spent a couple of days in Baghdad before being flown on an Iraqi Airplane to Jordan and then on to the UK with British Airways.

I returned to Kuwait in September 1991 after a chance meeting with an old friend led to our marriage. We currently live in an apartment on the Gulf Road (road running around Kuwait Bay) in Salmiyah, which is a central location some 8 to 10kms from Kuwait City.

My husband teaches civil engineering at the local Technological College in Kuwait and is an avid mountaineer and ice climber, hence, we spend most of our vacations in the Alps.