ABOUT ME...
I've been working as a journalist for some years now, though my passion for the job started much earlier in life. The day I started working on my school paper aged 11, I knew a career in the media was for me! I've since grasped every opportunity that's come my way and have been fortunate enough to have worked for most of the major terrestrial news networks in the UK over a short space of time.

After graduating from an environmental geosciences degree at UCL, I competed against hundreds to win an ITV news bursary to fund my journalism course and was then offered a six-month training contract at ITV West News based in Bristol. Those six months quickly became three years as I was offered a staff job as a broadcast journalist after my placement was complete.

In fact within a short while of starting, I was soon presenting the news in the studio and being sent out to report on anything from rioting protests to monster truck festivals. In the name of my art I've put myself through a marine commando training session, I've abseiled down an 80 foot gorge...I've even gone as far as too sing on air to Roy Orbison's 'I drove all night' - oh the embarrassment! Sadly, there seems to be no limit to how far I will go to make a story interesting, informative and just as importantly - entertaining!

AWARDS AND MORE...
On a more serious note however, there have been many stories where I've been lucky enough to find my reports have made a difference - one major example being when I covered the SE Asian earthquake in October 2005.

I managed to convince my head of news (after much persuasion, and proposal drafting) to send me to the Pakistan-Kashmir border with a group of British aid workers. Being a newbie at the time, there was some speculation in the newsroom from my more experienced senior colleagues about whether I was up to covering such a demanding and significant event. But within days I was on a whirlwind trip out to the earthquake zone, witnessing devastation and destruction I'd never before imagined, experiencing aftershocks and escaping landslides, battling red-tape and negotiating with arrogant officials, hearing real-life stories that left me fighting back tears, and meeting some of the most extraordinary people I'd ever met in my life.

During this trip I demonstrated my organisational skills, incessant determination to get the story, ability to negotiate and be diplomatic, to overcome obstacles, cope with bureaucracy, manage a strict schedule and budget and to use my language skills to get the emotional interviews with survivors in their own mother-tongue other journalists failed to get.

The day I returned I want straight from the airport to the edit suite and compiled my reports. The response was phenomenal. Viewers young and old united to raise funds and provide aid.

I won three prestigious awards for that series, earned the respect of my seniors and praise of my colleagues...but more importantly I confirmed to myself that I had it in me to overcome obstacles, push boundaries and above all to believe in myself and my own abilities.

I've since moved back to London where I have worked for Five News on their main news programmes as a package producer and a chief sub, and am now working as a senior broadcast journalist and duty producer for BBC News and Weather.

SO WHAT'S NEXT...?                                                                                           

My dream for a while now has been to venture into the world of documentary and film-making, and I have many ideas I'm eager to pursue. Taking part in this Crossover course is a very exciting opportunity and has definitely been an inspirational experience so far. I hope by the end I will be ready to make the leap from my comfort zone of news and jump head on into the big wide world of factual documentary!