The author was born in Leeds in 1967, just before the law changed in England to allow abortion. The author was adopted as a baby. She found out that she was adopted when she was 24 years old. At the age of fifteen, she became a Christian and started Local Preacher training in the Methodist Church the following year. She was a student at Cliff College (1985-1986 and 1999-2001(M.A.)) She studied at St Martins College in Lancaster (1986-1990 (B.Ed.)) to be a teacher and a youth worker. She was married to a Baptist minister for a number of years and has two grown up children. For the last eighteen years she has been a single parent to two children who live with a disability. She is a founder member and CEO of Gateway North East, a charity working alongside children and young people with a disability or barrier to learning. The author has been a Methodist Local Preacher for thirty years and Local Preacher tutor for seven years. She has also spent a number of years serving as a Reader within the Anglican Church. She presently worships in a Pentecostal Church (AOG) in Newcastle Upon Tyne and is a Street Pastor in Sunderland.