Firstly, my graduation day, what with such focus on my training and competition I was always delighted and thankful to many university staff for supporting me to this point.

My other memories tend to be of gruelling training sessions in the environmental chambers, often preparing for various championships in hot climates, but knowing that I was fortunate enough to have the best support and facilities around me meant I always headed to those championships as one of the best prepared. 

I don’t have any one particular memory just an overall feeling of accommodation and willingness from all the people involved to help me around my busy training schedule to help me succeed.

It’s impossible to pick out one moment from the time I’ve spent at Leeds Beckett over the years. I remember running on the track for the first time in a school sports day when I was five. Ten years later, I walked over the same track to meet my coach, Malcolm, for the first time. The pool and gyms hosted me for hundreds of training sessions and the fantastic people at the university have provided me with incredible support.

Before I became the first woman to sail solo, non-stop around the world in both directions, I spent four unforgettable years here surrounded by world-class athletes who pushed, inspired and entertained me daily. Set at the gateway to the Lakes, this place made outdoor education feel like destiny. It didn’t just shape my degree, it shaped my career. And to the staff? Patient heroes. Guiding a pack of high-achieving, hyper-driven students with calm, wisdom and just the right amount of humour. This wasn’t just a course. It was the launchpad.

My favourite memories were watching my friends, who played for the professional team Leeds Force, in home games at the weekend.

The people I met and remain in touch with 30 years later.

Be careful what you volunteer for - while I was a student in the early 1990s I put myself forward to be a subject for an early PhD study into creatine supplementation. After my third consecutive 30 second Wingate test in one of the trials I can still vividly recall questioning my sanity as researchers tried desperately to get another blood sample from me! That may have been the last time I volunteered for research...

The moment I saw the acre and the magnificent buildings surrounding it, I knew Leeds Beckett was where I wanted to be. The setting was breathtaking and left such a strong impression on me, I could instantly picture myself feeling at home on that campus. I was thrilled to learn I’d be living in Carnegie Hall during my first year. It was especially exciting because it was the first time women training to be teachers were allowed to reside there. Even better, it was right next to the track, which was the second most important place to me. I have so many cherished memories from my time here, both as a student and later as a lecturer. It’s where I formed lifelong friendships and was able to follow my dream of becoming a PE teacher and an athlete.

A notable memory was working on my thesis ‘A comparison of the mechanical properties of five rugby balls with specific reference to place kicking’, under the tutelage and guidance of Carlton Cooke. I constructed a pendulum with a rugby boot bolted to one end. The boot was attached in a position that replicated the exact angle of impact. This was achieved with the assistance of a camera that had a shutter speed of 1,000 frames per second, photographing the impact my own foot kicking a rugby ball. The results in the lab were then compared with a small ‘n’ study of me kicking the five balls on a training field. It was later published in 1997.

A special memory would be collecting my award on the acre. I always say that it was the equivalent of collecting a Grand Final ring at Old Trafford or Challenge Cup medal at Wembley, to give it perspective.

The 2011 GB Students tour to Australia, beating Australia Universities in a 3-game series.

All the times I used diving as an excuse to get out of being a participant. As a power-based athlete, I’m not a fan of endurance and, so I was always keen to avoid all the VO2 max tests we had to do in physiology. Fortunately, being a high-performance diver and ‘having to be fresh and ready for training’ was a great excuse to get out of it. A more serious memory was the personal graduation photoshoot I had at the pool, that felt really special as I missed the main graduation celebrations!

Memorable moments studying at Leeds Met (it will always be Leeds Met for me!), that's a hard one, there's so many.

In terms of football, I was fortunate enough to win BUCS in my 2nd year, beating Northumbria in the final at Loftus Road. I can't remember the score but I also remember we went on to win BUCS in the futsal the following week! Of course, the partying that followed was also lots of fun (if not so memorable!).

With regards to my degree, the opportunity I got to work with a local football team (Beeston FC) as part of my final year dissertation project was an invaluable learning experience. Getting the chance to practically apply all the theory learnt across the 3 years, helping to grow a community club and doing it all with great friends made during my time at university will always be my greatest highlight.

My memorable moments would be playing against Northumbria University in two back-to-back finals and losing out on penalties, and attending the Great North Run as a volunteer sports therapist.

Winning the BUCS Championship final at Loftus Road (home of QPR) after already having won the BUCS Northern Premiership and BUCS Futsal Championship that year.

Some of my strongest memories of studying at Leeds Beckett come from my student residential in the first year of my course. Spending a week in the Lake District with all the lecturers and students, doing many of the sports I already loved, was the best initiation to university possible.

I made lifelong friends and solid bonds with my lecturers, which made the transition into university life so much easier as it instantly gave us memories and shared experience we could connect through for many of the challenges that came ahead. I remember sitting round the table with Dave Jackson, Steve Robinson and Mick Totten, sharing stories of adventures during that week. Then over 15 years later, sitting around the same table once again with Dave Jackson, this time as the senior instructor leading the program.

To say thank you would never be enough to show appreciation of how much the team at Leeds Beckett did in guiding and shaping me on my journey and giving me the confidence and belief to go on an achieve everything I did within my sport and in the outdoor industry as a whole.

A standout memory from my time at Leeds Met University was winning the BUCS final in my first year. It was an unforgettable moment to experience with my teammates who had become friends, and I took huge pride in representing the university at such a high level.

My favourite memory from the course was when the penny finally dropped on how to use Harvard Referencing...

Really, it was completing the leadership module and an analysis of the Leeds Rhinos department and seeing how closely the academic theories on leadership styles matched ‘real-life’ application in an elite sporting environment. I really enjoyed this subject matter and seeing the close comparison between the two.

Memories of my four years at Carnegie are many and varied but, given the direction my career took subsequently, possibly one of the most influential was the following: During our second year, we were required to teach swimming to visiting groups of local schoolchildren. The children were all brought by bus onto Beckett Park and were required to get changed in the cubicles which lined the teaching pool that, I believe, is still there.

As student teachers, we were required to stand outside the cubicle doors (one student per cubicle) and introduce whichever child emerged to a basic swimming lesson. When the door in front of me opened, there stood before me a young boy with only one leg. This was my first encounter with any form of disability and, not knowing what else to say, I simply told him to “hop in” and said I would join him in the water. Shortly after (possibly in year three), Carnegie provided us with an opportunity to visit the Pinderfields rehabilitation centre and, in year four, I chose a B.Ed module on what, in the language of the time, was called “the education of backward and handicapped children”. The rest, as they say, is history.

Leeds quickly became home, not defined by one singular memory, but by the way it shaped so much of my success, both on and off the track.

I enjoyed four excellent years as a student in Leeds, which was initially a bit of a culture shock, having grown up in a sleepy, small town in Hertfordshire. I recall it being foggy for over a month on arrival in 1966. Early on in term one, I was admitted to Leeds General Infirmary with appendicitis, which prevented my taking part practically until after Christmas. It gave me a break from Olympic Gymnastics and my tutor, George Whitely, who had told me that, “If I could not master the pommel horse, I could always get a job at Christmas delivering the mail.”

In year two, with seven other students, I was billeted with Mr and Mrs Broadbent in West Park. Three of the eight were Carnegie students. The Broadbents were regulars at the Olde Time Musical at the City Varieties.

Year three and we were in the Carnegie Hall of Residence. It was a good football year, as we had an outstanding college first team with local Peter Hardcastle, who went on to play for Blackpool, Welsh amateur international Geoff Anthony and Scottish junior international Kenny Richmond in the team. These were ably supported by Malcolm Hird, who had played for Farsley Celtic. We were ‘allowed’ to play against Loughborough Colleges that year, beating them 3-0 and 6-1, and enjoyed an excellent run in the FA Amateur Cup, beating Bellingham Synthonia 2-1 in the first round proper and losing 5-2 in round two to the eventual finalists, Sutton United. As a goalkeeper, I gifted the first goal and Don Curry, our tutor/coach never forgave me! At the end of that season the team went to Berlin and stayed at Spandau prison, where Rudolf Hess was an inmate. We listened to the final on the radio and Don said to me, “This could have been us.”

Our year group has met regularly since leaving. Our next gathering will be in Leeds in April 2026, sixty years since we got together.

I wouldn't say there was a single standout memory from my time studying at Leeds Beckett, but overall my tutors and studies definitely inspired me to focus on sport and physical activity for public health, and contributing to the world to the best of my ability. This in turn led me to drive the growth of parkrun and subsequently step into the field of community sport and physical activity for development and diplomacy. It was certainly a pivotal time in my journey.