I am a manager for the Forestry Commission, leading a team focused on creating, managing and regulating woodlands in Northern England. Alongside my environmental job, I volunteer in healthcare research as a patient voice advocate, serving on decision-making boards for NHS England, the NIHR and Cancer Research UK.

My Fellowship will bring together my two passions - forestry and health - through exploring the therapeutic benefits of spending time in woodlands. More specifically, how this can be applied to young people (18-25) struggling with mental health challenges that keep them out of the UK workforce.

'Forest bathing', or Shinrin-Yoku, is a well-established practice worldwide to improve mental health, and the UK has started to encourage this in our own woodlands. I want to take this a step further - alongside embedding therapeutic woodlands into health policy, I will look at mechanisms to equip these young people with practical forestry skills while they spend time in our woods. As well as offering a therapeutic technique to improve their mental health, I hope to encourage them to consider forestry as a career - while ultimately offering a route back into the UK workforce.