What made you decide to become a radiographer?

Well, I was all set to go off and become an accountant. I've always been good at maths and it was sold to me as a job where I could earn lots of money, and I thought that sounded good! But halfway through the degree I decided I didn't really like it, and only stayed on to get the qualification.

I then spent two years doing the job and was just bored to tears. In fact, it was so depressing that I was desperate to get out. After a number of months trying various ideas I turned towards healthcare, having been working in the pharmacy at my local Asda for a while. I got another job as a pharmacy technician and was all set to do that at university when I stumbled across an advert in the local newspaper for radiotherapy.

At this point I had several people in my life who had been affected by cancer, actually two of my closest friends had died from the disease. So I vaguely knew about therapeutic radiography from their experiences, and from the first time I stepped into a therapeutic radiography department I knew it was the job for me. That was 16 or 17 years ago and I still love the job to this day.

Where was your first post as a therapeutic radiographer?

After I qualified from the University of Liverpool in 2007, I applied for a job as a therapeutic radiographer at the Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford. As a good northern lad I'd always said I would never work down south! But it was a lovely place to work, great people, good management, and I'm looking forward to going back there soon to visit.

When did you become an industrial relations rep?

Almost within the first couple of weeks, they asked me to be the IR rep because no one else was doing it. And I knew about the union stuff because my dad had spent a lot of time in his teaching career as a union representative and had been president of the National Union of Teachers.

I had been a college rep and union rep at university and had some experience from those roles, so I accepted the offer and went on the training with the Society. From there I got to meet more reps in the hospital, started going to staff side meetings and joined the Society's South East Council regional meeting.

So it was at this point you moved back to the Midlands?

Yes, a Band 6 job came up at Derby and I had mentioned that I had been the IR rep at Guildford, and they needed a rep there, so I fell into that job as well, and ended up going to regional meetings again, where I was asked to be the oncology rep on the executive. I was then elected to the Society's UK Council in 2016.

And that started you on the road to becoming president?

I never had a great yearning to be president, I was just enjoying representing members at a national level. Then after three or four years a colleague suggested that I stand, and I thought I had enough experience to do it, so I stood the first time when Ross got the job. Then I stood again the following year and was voted in, so became Vice-President.

What was happening with your work in Derby during this period?

I'm now a superintendent, which you could probably call junior management level. And going into that post was something I had to think long and hard about because the part of the job I really like is seeing the patients. So I'm very keen to keep doing that when I'm not on presidential work.

Why is therapeutic radiography so special to you?

To me, it's the perfect mix between the complex, technological aspects and the patient-facing, empathetic, compassionate side of things. We can be seeing some of our patients for four, five or six weeks, so we build that relationship with them when they're at a very low ebb and help them through difficult times.

Sometimes people will come back weeks or months later and pop their head around the door and say "everything's clear", and that's great. There's no better buzz than getting someone through that experience and see them come out the other end smiling and happy. It's fabulous and that's what we're here for.

As President you'll be publicising the work of radiographers but what will your message be to Society members?

I want to have a Big Conversation with the membership. I want to get out there and talk to grassroots members and find out what it is they want the Society to be doing. We need to be out there organising events and face-to-face meetings and bringing people together again after Covid. I know all our members are proud to be radiographers, I want them to be proud of being part of their Society too.

They pay their fees to fund the Society, so we need to know what it is they want from us. Hopefully that will get them more engaged and the Society will continue to grow. 

It's the detailed intelligence that we really need, which you can only get from talking to people. And if it's not the President's job to get out there and talk to people, then I don't know what is.