Years ago, not long after giving birth to baby daughter Isabella, I suffered a massive brain aneurysm, which left me in a coma.
The odds were terrible. Around three in five people who have a subarachnoid haemorrhage die within two weeks, and half of those who do survive come out the other side with severe brain damage and disability.
I had to teach myself how to speak again, how to hold a knife and fork, how to play my beloved piano then read music again.
The doctors knew I was starting to recover when they saw I was reacting to music being played to me in the hospital. I couldn’t even talk yet but I was moving my fingers and pretending to play the piano.
It took me three months to be able to look at an object and give it its correct name. And it was patience and perseverance that got me through.
My approach was to learn something and then stop. Then master that. Then learn something else, then stop.
It is this powerful lesson of grace, patience and revelling in small victories that I now instil in my clients. People still come to me for vocal training, but many also come to find out how they can fulfil their potential or realise the buried creativity within themselves.
Most recently, I am involved in The Arts as a campaigner and advisor.
I have begun working with the V&A and also, I am a patron of Speakers for Schools.
In my spare time, I read and follow political courses from universities such as Oxford University Further Education as I would love to help shape government policy to make creativity a superpower for all young people.
