I graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Psychology and then taught in schools for several years before embarking on an MSc in Epidemiology at the London School. I followed this with a PhD at the School looking at socio-economic differences in women’s use of primary care for fertility problems. Since finishing my PhD, I worked for a year at UCL, in the Health Behaviour Research Centre (now the Research Department of Behavioural Science and Health), on a CRUK-funded project developing materials to raise awareness of gynaecological cancers and encourage early presentation to primary care. I returned to LSHTM in May 2012 to work in the Cancer Survival Group on a study into ethnic and deprivation differences in breast cancer survival, and then leading the Cancer Policy Programme - a small team investigating variations in cancer outcomes in the UK and in comparison with Nordic countries.

I now work in the Health Services Research and Policy department, on the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership, trying to establish which health system factors may explain some of the differences in cancer survival seen between countries with comparable health systems.