I 🫶 working at Newcastle University.

I also 💗 running 👟… (when it’s to the Friday office bake sale!).

In the 1970s, my parents migrated from Hong Kong to the UK. With a strong British link and hopes for a better future, they left with little but had big dreams.

The UK was facing labour shortages in low-wage, labour-intensive jobs. My father, an accountant by trade, worked in a takeaway. My mother worked in a sweatshop. They were the supply to the demand in the East End of London.

Not long after arriving, they achieved one of their goals: starting a family. First my brother, then me.

We didn’t have much growing up. We lived together in one room of a shared council house, borrowed clothes from the community, and treasured every outing. One day, remembering it now like it was yesterday we all travelled in the cab of a removals van, me holding a prized 2-litre bottle of Safeway’s Coke on the journey from Southend-on-Sea to Barnard Castle.

The North East became our home. It still is 🏠.

Looking back, I know now the happiness I felt as a child came alongside the intense pressure my parents felt, building a life thousands of miles from home in a completely different world. But what they held onto and passed on to me was the belief that education, knowledge, and hard work were the keys to a better life.

It’s why I’m proud to work for Newcastle University, to be part of sharing education and knowledge to the North East, nationally and globally.

It’s also why I’m running the Great North Run as part of Team Newcastle, raising money to support our students.

Every step of the 13.1-mile journey will help raise funds for access and participation scholarships, hardship support, food and IT provision, course materials, and more.

Your support will help open the doors of higher education to those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds including those fleeing war and conflict, and young people in our own region where, in some neighbourhoods, only 12% of pupils progress to university.

📍 Every donation helps change a young person’s life.