I am the head of support services at the charity Missing People. I have been with the charity since 2008. Previously I worked in youth services, homelessness, mental health and vulnerable adult services.

I completed my Fellowship in 2011, and went on to set up counselling and therapeutic services for families of missing people. I visited Australia in 2010 to understand their service provision for the families of missing people, which helped to shape the service we then created.

One of the biggest things I learnt from my Fellowship was that often professionals don't hold the answers and I learned the most from people with lived experience. I have continued to use participation and co-creation as the key influencer in my work. I continue to be fascinated personally and professionally in resilience, how trauma impacts people and by different types of loss. 'Missing' loss or 'ambiguous' loss has some unique facets which I continue to develop my understanding of.

My Fellowship gave me the opportunity to challenge my own perspective but also to validate it. It gave me a chance to assert my expertise and professional confidence in the field of missing persons.