As a late diagnosed girl with ADHD and post concussion syndrome returning to university for my second degree, I really understand how many barriers there can be to accessing higher level education in a way that works for you. Working as a surf coach for five years has brought me into contact with some wonderfully diverse groups of people that I feel very lucky to have positively impacted, as well as working directly with the country’s top adaptive surfers to make their sport accessible. This is supported by my experience working with neurodiverse children in a school and my lived experience of both going through without any support the first time, and with support this time.

I am fiercely passionate about making these incredibly important years, and huge investment of time and money, fully accessible to everyone, not matter what additional or different needs you may have. This involves pushing the IT team to streamline the website to be much clearer – how many of us followed a link to book an appointment for neurodiversity support that didn’t exist?! Or if it does… why was it impossible for a neurodiverse individual to find? Plus, impact statements should be directly emailed to your tutor and seminar staff, so you can feel confident that you can leave a class because your migraine is unbearable or that you find it hard to sit still, without needing to repeatedly explain why. Also, more effort should be made to get messages to those who need them. Apparently, there was a quiet hour before freshers fair officially kicked off – I could have really done with attending that rather than queuing for the regular time, getting overwhelmed as soon as I got in there, panicking because I couldn’t find the exit, and leaving without joining any societies (or getting any freebies!)

These are just a handful of experiences I am sure many of you reading this will have faced and I am willing to push for changes in all of them and so many more. My job as a surf coach means I am used to talking to large groups, communicating in ways that work for different people, and getting my point across clearly.

Vote for me to do all these things in a way that really matters.