About Me

I was elected to represent the constituency of Cardiff South and Penarth in the first Assembly elections in 1999. I was subsequently re-elected in 2003 and 2007. Before that I was a County Councillor in the Vale of Glamorgan and a Town Councillor in Penarth.

Before becoming an Assembly Member, I worked as Personal and Political Assistant to Rt Hon Alun Michael MP, and before that I was a nurse – I am now Patron of the Marie Curie Hospice at which I used to work, some 30 years ago.

As an elected member I take an interest in a broad range of policy issues, particularly health, the environment, arts & culture and animal welfare; I have served on the majority of Assembly Committees during my time at the Assembly.

In the Assembly today, I chair the All Party Group on Animal Welfare and the Assembly group of Labour Co-operative Party members. I currently sit on the Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee; the Audit Committee; the Sustainability and Rural Development Committee; and I am a member of the Assembly Commission which is the Corporate Body of the National Assembly and has responsibility for the provision of property, staff and services to support Assembly Members.

I am a member of the Wales Labour Party Executive Committee, the Co-operative Party and the Transport and General Workers Union/Unite.

When I have any spare time you’ll find me either spending it with my family, listening to Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen or enjoying whatever performance is currently showing at the Wales Millennium Centre.

I am married to Paul with two grown up children and two granddaughters; I have lived in Penarth for most of my life, since leaving the Rhondda to become a nurse at Llandough Hospital in 1968.