With a degree in Fashion and a 17-year career in high-end retail visual merchandising, I have always been a specialist in the quality, care, and lifecycle of clothing. My career took me across the UK, managing professional standards for major brands, including years spent on London’s iconic Oxford Street. However, it was my move to Lowestoft as a newly single parent that brought a different reality into focus. Navigating unemployment and financial challenges firsthand, I experienced the vital importance of community support and, more importantly, the need for that support to be delivered with dignity.

​

Determined to turn my professional skills into a solution for other families, I worked with a business start-up programme to launch Way Up High in 2019. What began as a vision to bridge the gap between environmental sustainability and urgent poverty relief has grown into a strategic regional partner for both Norfolk and Suffolk County Councils. To date, I have personally dedicated over 7,300 voluntary hours to building this service from the ground up, ensuring we provide a professional and reliable safety net for our community.

​

My mission is to ensure that no parent in our region feels they have to struggle alone. By combining my national retail expertise with my lived experience of the local welfare system, I have created a "circular-economy" model where our community shop powers our Children’s Bank. We are here to ensure that every child has access to high-quality essentials for a healthy start in life, provided through a service that treats every family with the respect they deserve.