Describe your role in one sentence: Supporting healthcare professionals to deliver the highest standards of sexual and reproductive healthcare to anyone who needs it.

Why did you want to work in healthcare? I worked in Africa in my early 20s where one in five children were dying before they were two. I worked with women who wanted to educate each other to tackle the health issues they faced. This remains my motivation.

How do you want to see the sector change in the next five years? I would like to see sexual and reproductive healthcare services at the forefront of the move to a more people-focused, community-based and open access model of healthcare.

My proudest achievement at work was ... getting a commitment from David Cameron to collecting data on the number of people diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer (so that services to this group could be properly designed).

The most difficult thing I've dealt with at work is ... the inertia that is built into a system as complex as the NHS, including outdated attitudes to contraception.

The biggest challenge facing the NHS is ... how to encourage people to take more responsibility for their own health when facing many other challenges in their lives.

The people I work with are ... extremely knowledgeable about our members and their work in delivering sexual and reproductive healthcare in many different settings.

I do what I do because I ... like to organise things well that make a difference.

Sometimes people think that I am ... very serious because of my expression but I'm actually quite funny.

Right now I want to ... make everything work perfectly and deliver a great service to our members.

At work I am always learning that ... everything you do in a charity must lead back to improvements for your users.

The one thing always on my mind at work is ... what can I tell my son that I learned today?

If I could go back 10 years and meet my former self I'd tell them ... that everything you are learning now will be useful later (and to smile!).

If I could meet my future self I'd ... expect them to be making a difference.

What is the best part of your job? The passion of our officers and members in delivering family planning services to their patients.

What is the worst part of your job? Setting limits to what we can sensibly achieve.

What makes you smile? Remembering that I can look very serious.

What keeps you awake at night? My own children waking up and the impact of the lack of access to contraception for women in all parts of the world – on their own health and their families' [health].

If you would like to feature in our "Five minutes with ..." series, or know someone who would, then you can let us know by emailing healthcare@theguardian.com

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