Profile

I really love travelling, I’ve not managed to travel to all continents of the world, but that is my mission in life! I also love spending time with my family, I have a large one, coming from a family of 5 siblings. We are all grown up now and have children of our own. We all live in London so it’s great when we all meet up as it can be very lively. Gardening is another passion of mine, I’ve tried my hand a growing fruit, vegetables and various different flowers and shrubs.

I started my career as a Organic Chemist. I worked in the lab, synthesising and designing drugs for the treatment of cancer. I did this for 6 years straight after I completed my PhD. During my time as an Organic Chemist I learnt about Clinical trials and wanted to know more, so I made the move to work in Clinical Research. My first job in Clinical development was as a Project Manager at a small Clinical Research Organisation (CRO for short). CROs are companies that are hired to run clinical studies. I work in early phase clinical research, which looks at how newly designed drugs work in the body, how safe they are and finding the amount of drug (dose) that is safe and will treat a disease.  I thoroughly enjoy what I do as each day is different and I am always learning new things.

Before a study can start, there are a lot of documents that need to be prepared. Most clinical trials have a study protocol, which is a key clinical trial document. The protocol is a manual of how a study is to be run. It contains the design of the study (how long it takes, what is involved) and provides a list of rules (do’s and don’ts) and instructions. Much of my day is spent in contact with companies that have been hired to carry out parts of a clinical trial. These could be companies that have been hired to find people to participate in the study, or it could be that they analyse samples (blood or urine) taken from people participating in the study. I make sure that they are following the protocol and that the study is going to plan.

I also have to meet with various different functional team members. My job involves a lot of collaborative work and there are many different people invested in the progress of the medicine and the trials that it is in. On some days I have to coordinate with different team members, providing updates on a clinical trial, or obtaining new information that needs to be relayed to companies performing tasks on the study.