Content Note: Mentions of domestic violence

I have had Vitiligo from the age of five years old and am now an advocate for Vitiligo and skin positivity. In 2021, I began modelling and advocating for others with skin conditions and have since gone on to feature in campaigns for brands including H&M, Johnnie Walker, & Lola’s Lashes.

I solo travelled from the age of 19-22 and visited South East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. I knew I wanted to study law when I returned to Glasgow, but I had no formal qualifications. So, I attended college as a mature student and completed my SWAP course in 2018, and was then accepted to the LLB at Glasgow Caledonian University the same year.

I began training Muay Thai at my local gym in 2017, and during my first year of full-time LLB studies, I competed twice. In 2019, I joined the GCU Muay Thai Society and was later elected captain for two consecutive years. During my captaincy, I recognised the reach of the society and introduced a charitable component. I added a charity raffle to our annual fight night and involved local gyms as well as the standard university societies giving the event a community feel. We raised money for organisations such as With Kids, and SAMH.

I also aimed to remove some of the barriers to Muay Thai, and as part of this, I used the society’s social media platforms to gather information on how to make the environment more inclusive. I then collated this data and designed the ‘Buddy Scheme’ which I proposed to our members and the wider public. It returned a wholly positive response, and the scheme was introduced. Essentially, it allowed nervous potential new members to contact the society to be assigned a ‘buddy’ who would assist them in many ways to remove some of their anxieties. The scheme resulted in the number of women tripling within a year.

Just before I graduated in 2022, I was awarded the Ross Ballie Best Volunteer of the Year Award for my overall contributions to G-Cal Muay Thai. I graduated in 2022 with a First Class LLB Scots Law Honours degree and decided that I would take a year out to achieve a few other goals prior to completing my postgraduate diploma.

This past year: I bought my own house, which I live in with my beautiful rescue greyhound Millicent, I began my PgDip in Professional Legal Studies at Glasgow University, and I was successful at my traineeship interview at my dream firm which I will begin in 2024. I also joined the Board of Glasgow East Women’s Aid in May 2023 & have since been heavily involved in the strategic planning & in creating the organisation’s 5-year restructure framework. Growing up in a home in which there was extreme domestic violence, helping women & children has always been a strong objective of mine, being in a place where I am able to do this is difficult but rewarding!