Joanne Lawrence

As a new MRes student I found the welcome from the Mature Student Society a great help in my first few weeks. I have been out of academia for a long time and it has been immensely reassuring to be able to make connections with others in the same boat.

I'm conscious that voluntary societies only exist because of the people who give up their time to support them and thus offer my services as treasurer. My career has been mainly in industrial marketing (mining and detergents) but I have also acted as company secretary and managed company accounts for more than 20 years, initially for my own business and then when running a medical membership society.