I come from a small village in County Donegal in Ireland, a massive rally county as most Irish people will know.
My father and his father have carried on the family business of owning a garage and then, from a young age, I began to help
my Daddy working in the garage and it sort of just became a natural thing for us.
Basically every corner I turned there was somebody in that corner telling me 'this is not for you and you shouldn't do it'.
That made me even more determined that I was going to do it.
In reality that actually made me much stronger as a person and a woman.
This, for me, is pretty much where it all started really.
This is where my big ideas came from and where all my thinking was done.
Down the back of the garage is where my Daddy's Daddy used to work as a mechanic, doing starters and alternators,
repairing them and then I suppose when Daddy was younger then he started and then they filtered it down to me.
So there's quite a lot of family history in this garage alone.
I was always helping my Daddy doing wee bits when I was younger
and that's not necessarily helping him fixing things, maybe just being around.
People were always very interested in what I was doing here
and did I enjoy it and was I going to make a go of it and did I see myself doing it for years.
It didn't come naturally to me, mechanicing, it definitely was a thing that I had to work on.
I was learning as much as I could of Daddy every day.
You can imagine how hard it is anyway trying to figure out what you're into, what you like, who you are, what you want to do.
When people would see me out on a Saturday night - I love to glam, so I'd always have a nice dress on, do my hair
and then on a Monday I was straight back into work mode and have my dirty clothes on, my nails would be dirty
getting straight back into it.
And then I had a sort of turning point when I hit 18 or 19, I was basically just like I know I'm going to breakthrough
and prove them all wrong someday, so, you know what, if I want to paint my nails pink I'll paint my nails pink
and you just mind your own business.
There was a part in my career where I thought I need to make this change because I was looking out the door of the garage one day
and it was a horrible, rainy, miserable day and I thought I really want better for myself.
What I really enjoy about being a Prototype Technician is you stay relevant in the industry.
Our opinions are heard every day, we get to share our opinions with one another, the whole team, as a collective
it's not just one person telling you what to do and you do it.
If you have a good idea you can pitch it.
You're constantly improving on yourself and the product that you're working on.
It's important to have a goal, something to work towards, something to keep pushing yourself to the next level,
keep pushing the boundaries of what you think you can do.
The progression and refinement of electric vehicles and potentially hydrogen vehicles is definitely going to be there
and that's something I'm really excited to be able to work on and to be a pioneer
and leave a legacy for the future and future generations.
As far as my career now, I'm still uber passionate about helping people.
When I was in motorsport I thoroughly enjoyed that but that was for me
that was a little bit of selfishness in me that I wanted to partake in.
The time had come where I said to myself I could be doing a little bit more for people, for the environment, for the world in general
and that's what I'm doing now.
Leaving a little piece of history for my children's children.