This is my life story.

I was born in the UK. I lived with my Mother and an elder sister and brother. My Mother was divorced and in those days there was no support so we were relatively poor. I had an indifferent education as I suffered from dyslexia, so was very late to be able to read and write. Dyslexia was not understood in the 70's if you could keep up you were just put down as slow. When I was 14 my school suggested that I might be able to get a job in a shop if I was lucky, but I knew that I had strengths that didn't rely on writing, math, logic, art, so I thought I could manage better. I left school as soon as I could. I did several jobs over the next couple of years but my Mother was a nurse and I really enjoyed helping people and so I tried volunteer nursing and found I was good at it. When I was 18 after I had done some further education, I started my training to become a registered nurse. In my third year I met and married a Doctor and by the time I qualified I was pregnant with our first child. My husband took a job in NZ for his career and I found myself in a new country with no support and a six month old baby. That was a very stressful time. Over the next five years we had three more children, so it was a very busy time. I unfortunately suffered from post-natal depression after each birth, these were very black times. For a few months after each child, life was a daily fight to do anything, but with the help of the local church and some very good friends we managed a path through it all. Even black times when resolved help build confidence. When you find that you are the only one that can dig yourself out and you do it, that is a very powerful feeling and cannot but give you the power to achieve anything that you really want. Being so busy with the children my life was full, but once they went to school I had far too much time on my hands, so I started to look at what I was going to do. I decided to go back to nursing but it had been ten years, so I enrolled to study nursing again, in NZ. Doing this I would refresh my knowledge and I would have the school holidays free. I graduated and went to work in the Operating Rooms at a major hospital.

All of this was so different to what my life would have been in the UK. If I had stayed at school for another year I am sure I would have started to believe that I was as stupid, as they labeled dyslexics' in the 70's. Instead of that life, I had a beautiful family and nice home, an active career and after a few years I found that I had a good eye for business. I thought I should look to the future, so with good advice, I purchased a rental property and then another and then it blossomed into two very successful rental companies one in Auckland and one in Hamilton. I have traveled the world and seen things that I would have only ever dreamed of. I have climbed mountains, scuba dived in every ocean and have spent over a week under water, until I couldn't dive anymore. I have tramped up the gold trail in Alaska and I have visited the Artic circle, twice. I have camped in Antarctica which was unbelievable and none of this was ever even dreamed of at the start of the journey, so Yes my life has been better than I had the right to expect.

My life was so different to what was projected when I was 15 years old, that in some ways it felt surreal. I was meant to work in a shop and lead a very ordinary, life but here I was in NZ with a great career as a Charge Nurse, a successful business woman, a great home in Auckland and a holiday home as well, four beautiful children, a doctor as a husband, so nothing like the life that the UK system thought I should have achieved under their plan. I had a good role model of my Mother who worked so hard and raised three children under difficult circumstances, that it gave me the confidence to see something better. I was a very nervous child, but I was bright, which made all the difference. I knew that I wanted a successful and comfortable life and I was prepared to work very hard to get it. I knew where I started and I knew where I wanted to be at the end, so I planned a long journey and followed it step by step.

When I was depressed or under pressure I used the strength that came from achieving small successes, and that can act as a springboard to get going again. Workout what you want and then make a plan. Get good advice and then take it. Workout the numbers and if they don't add up don't go there. Stick to your plan, no knee-jerk responses to changes, if you have done your homework then it will come right. Don't over tax your money, but it's okay to over tax yourself a bit. Be kind to yourself, give yourself room to make mistakes without being hard on yourself. Give yourself the advice that you would give a good friend, and then take it. Never dismiss any achievement, no matter how small, on a really bad day getting up is a huge achievement. Don't dismiss any, add them together and value each one.

When you have been alive for 65 years you have probably seen everything at least once before. Just stick to your journey and tough it out. If you can manage a problem in one area, then you can use that experience to sort out other things. Hard times don't last.....neither do good times, so don't be surprised that things change, be sure they will change back. The trick is to work hard to make sure that you end up with more good than bad. If you know where you started and you know where you want to be, then you should be able to stay on track, even if things take a turn or two along the way.

I’m truly proud of myself that I did not just take what I was given. That I put in the hard work to achieve so much more. I have put in place things that will go on into the future and make it better, maybe not in a huge way but still important. In my career I have helped people that were suffering and needed my support and skill to keep them safe and help them get well. The homes that we have designed and built that will go on nurturing families into the future. My children and the way that they have grown into such nice people, with such different and interesting personalities will go on as they encourage their own families.

If I could share words of wisdom, it would be that common sense is very rare. Never take more than you give. Never change from doing something right for doing something easy. Trust yourself, never be talked into doing something you are not comfortable with or you don't understand. No one will look after your money better than you.