Biography
Shy bairns…
I didn’t always want to be a journalist, and the story of how I got to where I am today is one I love to tell.
Growing Up
If the enormous headline on my homepage didn’t give it away, I was born in South Shields and grew up on what many friends delight in reminding me is the “lesser side of the river” in Gateshead (I disagree, but that’s a whole different topic). I grew up in a Christian home and school life, so I was raised to appreciate values like integrity, tenacity, and humility (unless it’s about Gateshead, of course).
I went to school at Emmanuel College in Gateshead, and fully embraced their philosophy that education from Emmanuel is about not just grades on a page but also about character and responsibility. I threw myself into all they had on offer: I enjoyed charities work, volunteering as a librarian, and the arts, involving myself in school productions, choirs, and also lessons in clarinet and public speaking.
Over the years I had a number of achievements and memories - particularly with my charities role. I played a significant role in raising £36,000 to build a school in South Africa as part of Emmanuel’s 25th anniversary school-wide initiative. I’d later get to see some of the incredible work we helped to enable on a separate mission trip to South Africa aged 17.
I even ended up taking charge of running the library during my final term of Sixth Form when our Librarian had to resign at short notice. I also occasionally helped with the school newspaper, and helped organise the leavers’ yearbook and hoodies for my peers.
Meanwhile, at church, I threw myself into the tech team from a young age, assisting with both sound and visuals - something I still do 12 years on!
Discovering journalism
For many years I had my sights set on psychology until, as many teenagers do, I soon realised that this wasn’t for me, and had the all-too-typical careers advice session when I sat on a chair, shrugged and mumbled “I dunno” when asked what on earth I wanted to do instead, just 6 months before I needed to submit university applications.
At this point my guidance tutor latched on to the only other thing she knew I was passionate about which was talking about Doctor Who (not that I ever did so in her lessons of course… promise!) and suggested I reach out to some film and television sites and ask if they’d be willing to take article submissions from me.
So being the stroppy teenager I was, I rolled my eyes, and spent perhaps an hour, writing one single email, to RadioTimes.com’s Huw Fullerton, promptly forgetting about it afterwards. A week or so later I received an email back, being invited for a week’s work experience with the team. I’ll never forget going to speak to my dad and telling him “so I’ve accidentally managed to land a week’s work experience with the UK’s fastest-growing journalism site.” Not your average over-dinner patter.
Thankfully we were able to make arrangements for me to spend a week down in London working with the team there. As far as I can tell, I’m still the youngest person to have ever managed to land an opportunity with them.
This was the week of a lifetime, I had great fun and I soon realised that journalism was one of the most exciting, exhilarating professions.
After studying maths, English language and religious studies at A-level, I enrolled to study BA Hons Media & Journalism at Northumbria University, moving out to none other than the town I already lived in, to stay in the only student accommodation located in Gateshead. I’m sure it was a pure coincidence.
Uni and the pandemic
While at university, I was heavily involved with the Christian Union, and in first year, during our events week, I was asked to take over the CU’s social media with immediate effect. I was keen to get involved and already had a passion for social media, however, I had little-to-no graphic design skills. I raised this with the president and he told me I would have “nothing to worry about” and that they would find other ways of sourcing graphic design. This turned out to be a somewhat overly-optimistic reflection on what would actually happen, but within a few months’ time, I had discovered a new passion for graphic design having taught myself over summer.
In my second year, I started becoming serious about wanting a job in journalism and began looking for more work experience. I joined our local division of The Tab, I was very lucky to land a paid role working as a runner on election night for the BBC, and finally, a week’s placement with Global’s newsroom in Newcastle.
It was a memorable experience reporting on Covid (both with Global and The Newcastle Tab). However, the pandemic soon became a serious thorn in the side of my career development. At the start of March I was in discussions with BBC Newcastle, The Chronicle, and Global for another week’s placement. The week before lockdown, all of these, alongside the different placements of my uni peers were cancelled in a single day, that we began referring to as “black Monday”. A week later lockdown was instigated and any and all work experience opportunities evaporated.
This was significant because I’d been frequently advised that the “trick” with journalism was to get your foot in the door, and the trick to that was getting as much work experience as possible. Later on in the summer, I’d had a meeting with BBC Politics North’s Michael Wild, who told me that while they’d love to have me on a work experience placement, they simply couldn’t let me in due to pandemic restrictions.
At this point, I realised that the disruption of the pandemic posed a long term threat to my professional development. I realised that Covid was unlikely to be over by the summer or even perhaps a year, so I decided to look for a placement year in industry as a constructive way to wait out the pandemic while continuing to cultivate some of the skills I’d acquired over the last few years.
East Durham College
I was very fortunate to secure a placement at East Durham College, when many of my peers had their own placement plans cancelled completely due to the pandemic. I was joining the college as their social media intern, and while it was initially an excuse to delay my studies I actually ended up having one of the most fun-filled and enjoyable years of my life (alongside developing current talents and introducing me to new skills ).
I’ve always had a passion for working with children and young people, and within weeks I felt fully integrated into the staff and wider college community. Day-to-day my main responsibilities were maintaining activity on the college’s social media channels and assisting with other marketing tasks like writing press releases and hosting applicant open evenings
Throughout the pandemic, I continued to write stories for The Newcastle Tab, having joined just before lockdown. In April 2021, I was delighted to be appointed Co-Editor-In-Chief. I’d worked hard to impress the previous editors, demonstrating my commitment to the group and abilities as a journalist. While editing the Tab, I’ve enjoyed leading our coverage of a range of issues important to students in Newcastle, including the spiking outcry, Newcastle women’s safety activism, and men’s mental health.
Breaking into Journalism
In February 2022 I also started a new freelance role, working as a floor assistant on the BBC’s Politics North programme. Even now, I’m still responsible for welcoming and looking after high-profile regional politicians who appear as guests on the programme alongside a number of other floor management roles. Since I started I’ve loved being an extra pair of hands at the BBC, and it’s allowed me to launch myself as a fully capable and competent journalist.
Things began to get exciting in September 2023, when I was asked in to cover NTA shifts for Look North, this involves autocue operation and bulletin timings. It was a great chance to build skills in live production and, crucially, I was in the newsroom everyday for a period of 8 weeks - watching how the best in the business made outstanding local news. I greatly enjoyed working with and getting to know newsroom colleagues, and when pitching stories I was supported by newsroom colleagues who were generous in their time and willingness to facilitate opportunities for me to develop my skills. This came to a climax In January 2024 I enjoyed playing a role in supporting the introduction of BBC Look North’s new set, running autocue for weeks of rehearsals.
Shortly after this (just a single week in fact) I was offered a short attachment with Look North’s planning team. This was my first “job” as a full time journalist. The planning team worked tirelessly with me to grow and develop my skills and were generous in offering many opportunities including the chance to produce a number of reports. Looking back, these first three months were critical in my development into a journalist, with experienced colleagues shaping me into a confident reporter before then offering me a springboard into the daily life of a journalist working for the BBC in Newcastle.
3 Elections?!
Towards the end of my attachment with the planning team, my time was devoted planning for our upcoming set of local elections. This included 2 mayoral races - one of which was the North East’s first metro mayor. Alongside producing visualised radio debates for both I also coordinated the deployments on election night, and additionally was able to serve as a reporter across a number of counts.