“I’ve been able to connect with my clients – because I’ve been through a medical negligence claim myself”

At the start of my final year of A-levels, on Halloween, my life changed overnight. I was supposed to be going to school, but I had an odd stomach pain moving from side to side. I ended up at the hospital and was diagnosed with appendicitis. It was meant to be a routine surgery, but the next thing I knew, I was coming around in intensive care.

It transpired the operation had gone wrong. The laparoscope – a medical tool with a tiny camera – used for the keyhole surgery had been put too far through my abdominal wall. There was a long delay identifying why I was losing so much blood. My organs were shutting down and both my lungs collapsed. A surgeon from another hospital had to be called in – they managed to save my life by repairing the hole made in my artery, then taking my appendix out.

I went from being a typical student in sixth form to somebody who couldn't get out of bed. I had all my stomach muscles sliced through, so I needed physio to walk again. It was psychologically and physically traumatic. I had to leave school because it was just too much while I was recovering. The surgeon who saved my life said, “I've got two young daughters and if this happened to them, I would bring a clinical negligence case.” It was the first time my family and I had ever heard of that.

I didn't do well in my A-levels because I had to take my exams while still in recovery – I didn't want to repeat sixth form as the syllabus was changing. The admissions office at my university told me, “You’re going to find this really difficult because you’ve missed so much school. We’re going to need to monitor your progress.” It instilled a kind of fire in me. I thought: “You know what? I'm going to prove you all wrong.”

My clinical negligence case went on for over six years. It was challenging to have a case running at the same time as my degree. But by the end of my degree, I’d decided I wanted to do a law conversion course. A solicitor on my legal team really inspired me. I absolutely loved the graduate diploma in law (GDL) course – and I settled my case pretty much at the doors of the High Court trial, towards the end of my exams. By then, I knew for sure law was the right path for me. I thought, “Okay, this is something that’s happened to me for a reason. I’m going to use it as a springboard to help other people.”

Getting a training contract with extenuating circumstances was an uphill battle. There were several times I almost quit. I went to a law fair and asked an event panelist from a big city law firm about the best way to get a training contract, given my grades.

I’ll never forget that moment, because she said, “If I’m honest with you, we would put your application straight in the bin.” I was shocked. At the time, it was a hard truth to hear. She said: “Your best bet is to get into a law firm to work and to prove yourself.” So that's what I did.

As a paralegal, I threw myself into everything. It was an incredible role because they train you so well. But, three-and-a-half years later, it got to a point where a training contract wasn’t happening for me. I decided to come out of the world of law for a bit. I started to work for a bank, but continued to study the combined Legal Practice Course and master of laws (LPC LLM) part-time. When I found out I achieved a distinction, I was nearing 30 and I thought, “I'm going to give law one more go.”

I wondered, am I now too old? Am I going to be the oldest trainee? I got a paralegal role in the clinical negligence department at Stewarts. It was a firm I had always wanted to work for. And then, after five years of attempts, I got offered two training contracts in the same month! I decided to stay with Stewarts as I have been happy at the firm since day one, and they have always taken me for me.

They looked at what had happened to me and saw I had a different perspective to other future solicitors, having gone through the process myself. I felt like people finally believed in me, knew I could do it and saw me for who I was.

Empathy is essential. In the injury sphere, clients appreciate solicitors who are relatable, who they can open up to and who they know genuinely care about their case. I’ve been able to connect with clients because I’ve gone through the process myself. I’m able to say, “I understand how nervous you are about giving this witness evidence, because I know how nervous I was in my own case.”

I finally qualified in October – I've come full circle from my days as a sixth former! I have a real fight in me to succeed, both for myself and clients. I'm excited to build on the foundations that have got me to this point, and play a role in securing clients the compensation they need to put them back in the position they would have been in, had their injuries not happened. One day I hope to be a partner, but that’s a long way off. For now I’m finding my feet as a newly qualified solicitor.

I’m now an associate in aviation and international injury. I work on a varied caseload involving clients who have sustained serious and life-changing injuries. The international element means a lot of the cases involve different jurisdictions, which adds a layer of complexity.

I want to be somebody who people in the firm look up to, so I can inspire others not to give up. In some ways, I feel very lucky in what has happened to me. I survived, but it's also given me a direction in my life – and it's opened up this world of injury law that I never knew existed.