Profile

I never knew what I wanted to do when I left school so I took A levels in subjects which I enjoyed in a range of areas; history, spanish and human biology. At college, I was bored of studying and so decided not to go to university and went out to get a job. I got a job in a testing laboratory before moving to a bigger company. This bigger company paid for me to do my degree part time over 4 years – no student debt! Since then I have built my own laboratory and supervise 8 technicians.

I work in a microbiology laboratory which tests disinfectants to make sure they work properly by adding germs to them and seeing how long it takes for the item to kill the germs.

I also test things like toothpastes that come from the manufacturer to make sure they are germ free. These are also tested by adding germs to them because each time you take some toothpaste from the tube, it wipes along your toothbrush which has been in your mouth which is full of germs. I make sure that the germs get killed by special things in the toothpaste so it stays safe for use.

I recently got this job after working for a company that makes contact lenses – over a million a day!! The lenses needed to also be checked for germs to make sure they were safe to put into your eyes.

I get in and greet everyone in the laboratory. Everyone has their own tasks to do and we get to test lots of different products and add germs to different things to see what happens. I also get to look at the dishes from testing a few days before and see what gooey smelly germs have grown, or have not grown!