About Me

Hello

I’m a social business entrepreneur, mum of 3, gran to 5, homemaker, carer, busy, creative woman who cares a lot about people, life, our environment, our selfworth and happiness.
Every day is a chance to make a difference to someone or something somewhere. Life is full of challenges, it’s also full of energy, passion and hopefulness. 

I was born in a wee town on the west coast of Scotland and lived there until I headed off to study in London when I was 21. I can tell you London seemed so big and unfriendly compared to home!

After finishing college, I married the love of my life, moved to Hull and started working with young people. We remained in and around Hull for some 15 or so years. Our 3 amazing children were born in Beverley, in East Riding of Yorkshire.  I went on to study for a degree in Art, Design & Technology in York. During all of this  we continued to be involved in working with young people through our church and work, I lectured at a college where I worked with young adults with learning difficulties.
The week after my final degree exhibition we packed up our house, sold 2 cars, hosted 2 leaving parties (one for our children and one for our friends, and boarded the ferry to take us to live in Holland along with our dog.
We lived and worked there for the following 5 years, returning to my home town in Scotland in order for our children to finish their eductation.
We thought we’d only be back in Scotland for about 5 years, but things turned out a bit different to what we’d had in mind. I was ill for several years, and almost as soon as I became well again we started the social business, Trade Right International.
That’s a bit of a long story, which I’ll most probably expand at a later date.
A short summary is that we helped women in the Upper East region of Ghana to establish some shea butter making co-operatives, we bring some of their shea butter to Greenock (in Scotland) where we have an employability program for rehabilitated addicts and ex-offenders. The men are trained to make skincare with the Shea butter, which is then sold, the surplus profit will be returned to Ghana in aid and development.  This of course raises my other interest – natural skincare.  Making cosmetics and really high quality products has opened my eyes to so much about the quality of what we have available to purchase and the lack of information around our choices. 

Learning to run a business like Trade Right International has been a huge learning curve. Not only how to work out all the financial aspects, but things like how we make great quality, ethical products, different manufacturing practices, logistics, cosmetic compliance regulation to name but a few.  
It’s through developing our brand and working with client’s brands that I’ve become so much more aware of the waste that’s produced from packaging, transport etc. It really has opened my eyes to just how much damage we do to our planet without realising it. So that’s another of the things you’ll hear me talking about.

I’m about to set off on a new adventure/challenge which is the subject of my first blog post.

I plan to chat about all sorts of topics which are relevant to us all every day – diverse subjects including family life, the environment, work-life balance, faith, and also things I enjoy like cake decorating, making bridal headdresses, drawing and all sorts of other creative activities I get caught up in.