Profile

I with my husband, daughter and rescue dog Nala.  I enjoy running and being outdoors as much as I can, be it walking, having a picnic or at the beach.  I like reading and movies, particularly thrillers and horror stories.  I am a qualified scuba diver and enjoy thrill seeking; I have completed the fastest and longest zip line in Europe and am currently planning my next challenge with my friends!

I work in the Microbiology Laboratory at the Royal Oldham Hospital.  We receive samples from patients, any body fluid you can think of, wee, poo, blood… and use different scientific processes to find out what bacteria or virus is causing infection in the patient.  The samples come from people who may have a wound infection and who have gone to see their doctor, and people who are seriously ill in intensive care units with blood poisoning.  We can also tell the doctors and nurses what antibiotics to use to treat the patients with so they can get better quickly.  I am also involved in quality control: I make sure that all of the analysers and machines we use are functioning properly.  I also gather data on what types of bacteria are causing which illnesses and if one bacteria is more prevalent than others.  My favourite part of the job is finding new machines and testing those machines to see if they will find the bacteria or virus in the patient sample faster, so patients can leave hospital earlier and become better faster.

Outside of my role, I hold a Chartered Scientist title and volunteer as a STEM Ambassador, promoting healthcare science careers to students and teachers.  I also volunteer as an editor for the website Lab Tests Online.

My day starts at 8am.  I start by reading and replying to emails.  I then start preparing patient samples for analysis on the machines.  I look after the serology section, which is concerned with detecting antibodies to viruses such as hepatitis, mumps, measles and HIV.  The antibodies detected will tell the doctor whether or not the patient has an acute viral infection and/or has immunity to that infection.  Once the machines are running I will have a quick coffee break and catch up with the microbiology doctors who will tell us about the patients we are treating and of any interesting cases.  When the machines have completed their analysis I enter the results on the laboratory system so that they can be looked at by the doctors and nurses who are on the ward treating the patients.  I will usually end the day checking and reviewing our standard procedure documents to make sure they are up-to-date.