I am a retired Children’s Specialist Bladder and Bowel Nurse. I have a passion for making a difference which began when I first started working in the community as a Special School Nurse many years ago. I saw how, with the right advice and support, children, who had previously been left in nappies, could be toilet trained. This led to me developing my role as a Specialist Children’s Bladder and Bowel nurse and setting up one of the first nurse-led children’s continence services for which I was awarded an MBE in 1997.

Over the years I have worked nationally with NICE and NHS England to try and make a difference and ensure the voices of children and their families are not lost. I have over 30 years’ experience of working with children with a range of bladder and bowel problems and have been involved with DSUK for nearly 4 years. I was instrumental in the development of the closed toilet training Facebook groups and the pants4school project.

The work we have done in developing our ‘step-by-step’ toilet skill development programme has been shortlisted for several National Awards. Along with the literature we have produced and the on-line training sessions we run, we aim to empower families of children with Down syndrome enabling them to toilet train their child and have a better understanding of identifying and treating associated conditions such as constipation.