PICTURE THIS
My Skills & Experience
For a long time I have wanted to combine my love of poetry with my love of photography: Poetry that inspires me to capture an image or an image that inspires me to write the site. It is personal expression but I also hope that it is an inspiration to others.
​I am not famous, nor suspect I ever will be but I have had an exciting and varied life that has immersed me in immense suffering, unimaginable joy and everything in between. I have travelled to over 50 countries and met the most amazing people; I am surrounded by a wonderful family and work with amazing colleagues. The inspiration to write or the opportunity to capture striking images is ever present although, of course, time is always hard to find, but I will persevere and share my creations with the world. Enjoy.
Who I Am
MY STORY
I trained as a nurse in 1981 and after working to develop the autonomous role of the nurse as an Emergency Nurse Practitioner, studied law at Kingston in 1991. Before going to train as barrister in the autumn of 1994, I volunteered to teach nursing in Boga, Zaire for the Rwanda Mission. The assignment was interrupted by refugees arriving from the Rwandan Genocide and although we tried to help as best we could we were poorly resourced and soon overrun. I joined Tearfund and managed their refugee operations in Goma on the Rwandan/Zairian border.
In 1995, I worked on a joint Tearfund/Christian Outreach (now CORD) project to provide health and social services to 180,000 Rwandan refugees in Tanzania and realised that I was probably never going to be a lawyer. I then spent the next 6 years working in humanitarian emergency situations around the world and studied for an MSc in Development Practices and Complex Emergency Planning. I have worked in Honduras, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Albania and Afghanistan to name but a few and have visited places known only to the most adventurous travel agent.
In 2001, having adopted our daughter Hannah from China the previous year, I returned to nursing and have spent the last 16years developing primary, urgent and emergency healthcare services throughout the country. I recently completed an MBA in Leadership and Management of Healthcare at Canterbury Christchurch University.
As you can tell a rich vein of experiences from which to draw inspiration.
SHORTS
Inspired by faith
In my loneliness I discovered a garden
Rich with olive and cypress trees
I glimpsed an overgrown portal
With stones standing guard either side
Intrigued I brushed aside cobwebs
Peered into the encircling gloom
But was met by the joy of a welcoming light
And a voice that was calling my name.
A BRIEF MOMENT OF YOUR TIME
11/11/2014
I knew not one of them.
And yet my heart was pained,
By the sacrifice of many,
For the wretched yards they gained.
Lone tree stands guard among them
On windswept day of autumn.
Leaves strewn o’er Flander’s Fields;
As symbol of the fallen.
It’s difficult to imagine
A prison
Where the walls are made of love
Where the bars are made of hope
And the doors of memories past!
Difficult to imagine;
For most maybe
But not for the man trapped inside
Who yearns for his love
To be real once more
And the darkness to turn to light
POSSIBLY
Somewhere still, there lives a man
For whom no human anguish can,
Move him to feel that just perhaps
There is a way to not be trapped
Between the growing conflicts of
Those different nations backed by God
Who claim they're fighting for the good
Of all,
But neither stop, nor would;
For time to say;
We've worked out how:
No one, longer, needs to fight
To prove they have a greater right
To live.
BIOGRAPHICAL POEMS
Intermediate
CANDID WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
Advanced
POEMS FOR ALL OCCASIONS
Advanced
"Believe you can and you're halfway there"
Theodore Roosevelt
CONTACT
Thank you for reviewing my General Portfolio. Please get in touch to find out more.
Address:
9 Ditton Court Close, Aylesford, Kent, ME20 6PQ
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