Since gaining a seat at the table, initially via my involvement with Creative People & Places and then through County Durham’s City of Culture bid I have been advocating for better high quality access for left behind and forgotten places like County Durham.

I was one of four people (and one of three Sagittarians) to represent County Durham in the CoC 2025 bid team. I currently do this on a National level as a CPP Director and locally as part of the Into the Light place partnership. I take my seat at the table very seriously (sometimes a little too much!).

P.s. MyersBriggs confirms this is my personality type - when have they ever been wrong?

I have been writing ever since, aged 6 or 7, my teacher Mrs Best was impressed by my use of ‘But the scar of fear was left long after they healed…’ in relation to a volcanic eruption (this is why good teachers matter even more in working class places!). I’m a stereotypical bard - I just love a good story.

I’ve online roleplayed since I was 13 but mostly written poetry, comics, short stories and blogs for my own benefit, to make sense of our weird world. I’ve never been published. Most recently I’ve applied my storytelling talents to telling the story of NMN, our place and the people who make it happen in a way I hope will be heard.

See also Awkward Days, my irregular autobiographical journal comic.

Like so many people in the NE I grew up believing that the cultural sector wasn’t for me or if I wanted to make it I’d have to move down South and hide the fact I was a Northern Lass. This has been the story for a lot of us millenials, growing up in the post-industrial NE, particularly outside of the metropolitan areas of Newcastle or Sunderland.

Through my blog, Shy Bairns Get Loud, I’ll tell the story of how me and other imposters battled to build a space where we did belong and a scene locally that was for everyone. No more weirdos or ‘othered’ folks believing they don’t deserve the best culture in the place they call home.

Cosplay & nerd life alongside having nowt means I’m used to cobbling art together with Poundland buckets and cardboard. Being married to the famous Pablo Fantastico and mam of dragon only allowed me to grow that skill for making something out of nowt.

I know the importance of set dressing and costume in life - I learnt the hard way being the weirdo called a freak in the streets of Hartlepool. T-shirts and stickers are some of my favourite weapons in my advocacy role.

I am a grassroots creative having produced, directed, curated and designed events, happenings and accessible moment of joy throughout my adult life. 10 years with NMN and many more doing it the hard way before and in-between. I began with NMN as community engagement lead and I have been (officially) Director since 2022.

I dreamed of being Beatrix Potter when I grew up but I knew that living alone with some rabbits in the Lakes wouldn’t work - it never stopped me drawing, journaling and writing about my life in comics.

I went to Brighton to study photography and they sang the Byker Grove theme song at me so I gave it up but I never stopped obsessively photographing the world around me. I prefer weird analogue photography to digital (but I use whatever!).

I met Pablo because his graphic design was so terrible I had to intervene and I’ve been designing MySpace and RP profiles since I was about 13. Millenials do digital skills hard.

Sometimes being good at drawing is a curse because you are always being asked to draw something - I don’t mind so much when Jamie asks though!

Here are some of the things I’ve made for him or that we’ve worked on together. I’m dead lucky to have a creative and crazy kid whose imagination knows no bounds (even if minecraft are way too square for my vibe).