My Story

I never set out to become a nurse. In 2004, while studying for a law degree, I took a job in a dementia care home to help fund my studies. What was meant to be temporary work changed the course of my life. I fell in love with nursing – the privilege of caring for others, the science, the humanity.

From that point on, I dedicated myself fully to my profession. I studied at UCLAN, completed my Master's in Prescribing in 2010, and worked across services that changed lives: setting up one of the first nurse-led services in the voluntary sector, becoming Head of Nursing for Turning Point, Clinical Director for Cranston, and later Director of Nursing for Forward Trust, overseeing addiction services in more than 40 prisons. I lectured at universities, mentored students, and acted as an expert witness in cases involving nurses.

In 2019, after the birth of my third child, I stepped away from senior leadership roles to return to hands-on practice. I built a small service that grew into an organisation with 20 staff, supporting patients with complex needs across the UK. We developed a national crisis service for blue light workers and partnered with universities, law firms, and NHS organisations. Everything I did was guided by the NMC Code, which I upheld throughout my career.

But in 2021, after raising safeguarding concerns with an occupational health company and blowing the whistle when my warnings were ignored, everything changed. The company retaliated by making a malicious referral to the NMC. What I believed would be a fair and swift process became a four-year ordeal marked by silence, repeated delays, and further vexatious referrals – each one, in my view, unfounded and unsupported by evidence.

On 25th July 2024, I made the decision to stand up to what felt like my Goliath: the NMC. Despite my evidence and the support of my colleagues, I was called to an interim hearing on August 6, 2024. On the back of a referral that I maintain was clearly vexatious and entirely without truth, the NMC chose to suspend me for 18 months.

Now, a year on, I find myself not only fighting that suspension but also at the centre of what I believe to be a targeted campaign against me – involving suspected corruption and collusion between the NMC, CQC and NHS England. The intent, as I see it, is to crush both me and the business I built from the ground up.

That is why I have chosen to blow the lid on my experiences. I will not be silenced. I will expose what I see as systemic corruption in institutions that are supposed to exist to protect the public, but which, in my experience, have instead inflicted harm.

I will always be a nurse, but I now stand outside the system, free from its shackles, and committed to speaking the truth until meaningful change comes.

Please click here to read my open letter to the NMC.