Background

In another life, or so it often seems, I was the chief executive of a charity I founded, OURMALA, which worked with refugees, asylum-seekers and the Grenfell community from 2009- 2020.

In the early years, much of the work was voluntary so I also worked as a strategic communications consultant in the non-profit and private sectors.

Growing up in Wiltshire as the daughter of artists, I got to know the world through art, nature and literature.

After extended time in India and Europe, practicing and studying meditation and yoga, I trained to teach and founded Hackney Yoga Project in partnership with Hackney City Farm and the British Red Cross Refugee Services. Our work was to provide a safe space for refugee and asylum-seeking women to breathe and heal through therapeutic yoga.

Most had experienced gender based violence and many torture, human trafficking, modern day slavery, war, persecution or other cruelty.

Later, we expanded to work with refugee and asylum-seeking men, young people and women babies. After the Grenfell Tower fire, the NHS asked if OURMALA could adapt the programme to help this community and I led this work.

Over the years, I always taught the therapeutic, evidence-based yoga, sensitive to trauma and the reality of the refugee and asylum-seekers we served and also developed and ran the charity. I trained teachers and other health professionals in best practice for working with this group and was part of the first All Party Parliamentary Group on Yoga in Westminster.

I have a BA in English Language and Literature and an MA in Creative Writing from Sheffield Hallam University, a Diploma in Global Mental Health: Refugee Trauma and Recovery from Harvard Medical School and a 500 Hour Diploma in Yoga Teaching from The British Wheel of Yoga.

Jobs along the way include being a Woolworths cashier, waitressing, bar-tending, trainee literary agent and in-house journalist at a mining company.

Writing the book with Dad has been a return to my roots. These days, I live in London with my husband, dog and daughter. I love the quiet spaces in life, meditation, reading, writing, the arts and the outdoors. I’m also a life-long fan of EastEnders.