I'm quite an old Fellow – 2002 was my year to travel and learn.

I am currently a senior policy advisor with the Food Standards Agency (FSA). I love my role as I get to deal with a wide range of food policy areas and the FSA is a brilliant place to work – even before Covid-19 I was a home-worker.

My Fellowship was to study the welfare of cattle during transport in Canada, the USA (Texas) and Australia. I also got to travel to Mexico City for an international animal transport conference. At the time I worked as a trading standards animal health and welfare inspector, so my study trip was closely related to my role.

Since then I developed my career in trading standards, improving my skills, knowledge and qualifications and climbing the career ladder. I was fortunate to represent the south-west of England on the National Animal Health and Welfare Panel for many years, including a long tenure as welfare lead.

My Fellowship provided a huge insight and a great knowledge base for my animal health and welfare work but also was a popular topic in job interviews and a great way to advertise my ingenuity, sense of adventure and self-reliance. I will never forget the experience and contacts made.