I moved to Sherborne, Gloucestershire in 2010 to open up the old post office as a new village shop and tea room. I thought at the time that this was a pretty drastic career change, as I was a principal environmental health officer who specialised in housing within the Greater Manchester area.

Little did I know how much of my previous uni training, in food safety and health and safety, I’d end up needing as part of my new career! However, more recently I’ve also been making use of my housing background by helping National Trust tenants with repair issues. This has led to the re-establishment of a tenants’ association for the Sherborne Estate under the TANT umbrella.

I’m committed to improving the living conditions of National Trust tenants. I feel that by working with the Trust to push housing up the agenda, in addition to working at a local level on individual cases, we should make progress.

I volunteered to join the committee with the hope that my background in housing could assist in achieving TANT’s objectives to provide safe, secure housing for all Trust tenants.