I was born in Sheffield in 1956 I am a twin but unfortunately my other twin sister was stillborn. I have been blind since birth. I attended a School in Sheffield called Tapton Mount School, I stayed there till I was twelve years of age. From then on, I went to a School in Birmingham called Lickey Grange School and stayed there till I was 16. I then went to a place called the RNCB where I met my Husband Barrie, I was doing a commercial type course which involved Typing, English literature and shorthand. Barrie was on the piano tuning course. we married in 1979 Barrie still had another year to do so I sort of lived between the two houses, my parents house and Barrie's parents house which is in St. Helens. After he left college we moved from Sheffield to his parents house in St. Helens where he was looking for work as a piano tuner. He then heard of a place called Hunts pianos in a small town called Darwen which I had never heard of before. Darwen is a small town near a place called Blackburn Lancashire. So he got a job at this Hunts pianos and we managed to find a flat in this place called Darwen. We said that we wouldn't stay there very long as we were going to move down South somewhere near Kingston we actually went down there to have a look at the place but I didn't like it and it would have meant that Barrie would have had to have lived in digs for quite a while because of the expense. But then in 1980 I fell pregnant but it was not to be, I misscarried. then in 1981 Thomas was born and in 1987 Caroline was born. We are, still living in Darwen but we have moved house three times and we have lived in Darwen for 20 years and have been married for 21 years.

Now that the Children are growing up, I thought to myself well yes it is time to get my own life back. So I decided to go to College in 1993 where I did an open College (A) and (B) course in psychology and criminolgy then after I had passed those exams, in 1994 I went to University where I studdied to be a probation officer which I have nearly completed now. I also did some finger spelling for the deaf blind which I got a certificate for.

I completed my University course in 1997 it was a social workers diploma but unfortunately it was not to be. I haven't been able to get a proper job since, although in 1997 I did have a temporary job for 6 months. I went to work at the Science and industry museum in Manchester it was a special exhibition that was put on by a blind person she was the manager of the exhibition which was called Dialogue In The Dark. This was an exhibition where the members of the general public could go round the exhibition for a price and have a visually impaired tour guide. It was called Dialogue In The Dark because that was exactly what it was. It was a very good experience for me as well as the general public. It made me feel more confident in handling people I felt as if I was giving something to them well, I was, I was giving them my life experiences as a blind person in every day life.

Then after that job finished in 1998 I went in to Telesales and I did get a job but the firm closed after I had only been there for 3 months. So then I did nothing much really I just stayed at home and looked after the house.

Caroline and Thomas are much older now, Caroline is 13 and attending secondary School, Thomas is 19 and is looking for work which yet he hasn't been too successful but he is going on a training course for two weeks. The idea of the two week training course is to keep the young ones motivated something for them to get up for in the mornings its to stop them from getting lazy. I think that young children of today should be made to go in to the military at least they would learn some disipline.

My hobies are, reading, playing the piano, keyboards, writing emails listening to music and annoying the natives. Also I help my Husband Barrie to run a blind children's club, I am the one who organises the outings.

Now here we are in the year 2000 I am still at home and I don't run the children's club any more because at the time I was working and didn't really have much time so we both decided that's Barrie and I to give it up and let someone else do it because after all we had been doing it for 5 years and we both decided that enough was enough. I also like going on holiday abroad you will find out more on my holiday page.

In the year 2001 I did get a job as a telesales person working for the general welfare for the blind but I thought it was a waste of space it was ringing small businesses up and try to sell them cleaning products that disabled people was supposed to have made it was like begging really so I gave that up after 6 months. Then in 2002 I got a better job working at Barclays bank it was a call centre in Manchester. It did get a bit tedious though as there was a lot of travelling involved so it was very tiring, you could say that I was tired before I even started the working day. So I looked around for a job nearer to home. In 2004 I did find another job which was in my home town Darwen. It was a place called India Mill and the business was capita, it is working for the BBC television licence. I started there in September 2004 and I am still there now as we are now still in 2010.