Hello,

I am 61 years old, married with two grown up children, ages 22 and 23.

When I left school in 1973 I studied a Diploma in Languages for Business at The Polytechnic of Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom. From 1975-1977 I lived and worked in Madrid, Spain where I was a Bilingual Secretary for the Military Attachés at the British Embassy. I gained a BA (Hons) in Modern Languages (French and Spanish) in 1981, and a PGCE in French in 1982 when I became a teacher of French and Spanish for three years at a comprehensive school, teaching 12-18 year olds. From 1986-1993 I worked as a Practice Secretary for a team of 6 general practitioners at Cosham Health Centre, Hampshire, where I gained a good knowledge of medical terminology. I then became a full-time mother for several years and in 1999 became an occasional interpreter and translator for Portsmouth City Council.

During the last fourteen years I have gained a vast amount of experience working as a freelance interpreter for the National Health Service here in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and for the Primary Care Trust in the city. I have worked with Consultants, General Practitioners, Midwives, Health Visitors, Mental Health Counsellors and other health professionals. I have also worked with Social Services' employees and Portsmouth City Council employees, as well as the local Job Centres. In 2000 I became an occasional interpreter and translator for the Immigration & Nationality Directorate, Home Office. I occasionally work as a liaison interpreter for Prestige Network, and in the past worked for Lingland and last but not least The Big Word who employed me as a telephone interpreter.

My translating experience includes translating from French and Spanish into English in the field of psychiatry, cardiology, gynaecology, cytology, pharmaceuticals (expert opinions),hospital admission and discharge summaries, botany and ecology. Agencies I have worked for and still work for include Webcertain Translates, Tran-solution, Pearllinguisticsand PSG Translations.


My job is fascinating as not only can I sit in front of a computer translating different medical documents, but I can also "get out" and meet all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds and countries. Although I work for professionals in the UK who are English-speaking, the clients on the "other side" come from Africa, e.g. The Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, and France, Spain and Latin America.

I am very interested in researching medical terminology and have recently completed a 6-week interpreting course financed by Portsmouth Hospitals Trust and the University of Southampton and am now on the former organisation's Bank of Interpreters.