About Me
In 1989, I was born to a mother who loved (and loves) me a great deal and to whom I am quite grateful. I grew up in London, took my 11+ and moved to Chelmsford, Essex to be near my school. There I started using the computers at lunchtimes to read fanfiction and post prolifically on message boards about how much I loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We got broadband in my house when I was 13 and I never looked back.
While at school, I was an Air Cadet, a St. John's Cadet, a member of Chelmsford Youth Council, a member for Chelmsford on the Young Essex Assembly and a dedicated member of the Proactive Essex Police Youth Strategy (PEPYS) Youth Forum. I also worked in an Oxfam shop every Saturday for five years. Free time was already becoming a bit unknown. I quit all of them when I was 17 in order to concentrate on my A levels, and started editing Wikipedia instead.
In 2007, I moved to Bradford in my gap year to work as a Disabled Student Support Worker under the auspices of CSV. I had intended to spend my year chilling out and taking a break from endless examinations - I joined the Bradford University LGBT Society as Treasurer instead and took up drinking. I fell into political activism through people I met there, became External Relations Officer for Sensible Drug Policy UK, and nearly got arrested for the first time for blockading a petrol garage linked to Total, the single largest investor in the totalitarian regime of Burma.
One year later, I started my degree in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Manchester, where I was elected in a landslide victory as Bisexual Students' Representative to Manchester LGBT, founded a chapter of Manchester Students for Sensible Drug Policy (Now Re:Vision Drug Policy Manchester), ran for Disabled Secretary on the Union Council (where I lost to a slate candidate who, it turns out, wasn't even disabled), and went to the equivalent of two protests a week for a year. Oh, the joys of first year. Second year, I did much of the above, but also became Chair of Manchester Students Against ID, the Disabled Students Forum, and at some point became a Liberal Democrat. I quit shortly after the Liberal Democrats got into government and proceeded to support all the policies they had earned so much political capital opposing.
In 2010, I took another gap year between my second and third year. Ostensibly this was to take the break that I hadn't got in my first one, but due to an inconvenient relationship breakdown, I ended up having to resit some of my exams instead. The government then declared war on the poor and I took a job as Cuts Campaign Assistant at my student union, organising students to campaign against the cuts to public services and the rises in tuition fees. I also found time to start Manchester Local Exchange Trading Scheme (LETS), which took far longer than I anticipated but is now bearing fruit here.
I resigned from SSDP UK in July 2010 over a matter of principle and in March 2011, I helped found a different drug policy organisation, the Re:Vision Drug Policy Network, which works to empower young people to speak out against the drug war, which we felt would fill a crucial gap in the drug policy movement. It's going pretty well. In addition to the above, I work part-time as a researcher for HairyGoon.com and as a student blogger for the Manchester Mule.
I have now returned to university to finish my degree. In the summer of 2011, I will be helping to organise a Manchester conference for autistic people, and maybe finally getting to walk the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage I have been trying to organise for the last six years.
In what spare time I have, I like to read, blog, play strategic computer games that allow me to take over the world, and play the violin exceptionally badly.
For my professional CV, please visit my LinkedIn Profile.