South Central – Miriam

Miriam is the Region Coordinator for South Central, running Milton Keynes to the Isle of Wight consisting of all the branches in Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire.

She lives in Bourne End in Buckinghamshire on the borders with Oxfordshire and Berkshire, with her husband Ian and daughters Natasha, aged 10 and Rebekah, 8. She had both girls by caesarean (or via the sunroof!) as they were 10lbs 1oz and 8lbs 14oz respectively and refused to come out any other way.

Somehow people have assumed that the NCT would not welcome her because of that - which makes her all the more proud of the work that she does and determined to tell other people about it! She joined the NCT when she was 6 weeks pregnant with Natasha and helped her next door neighbour edit the branch magazine, then became the advertising coordinator for the magazine, postnatal supporter for numerous parents and finally branch chair for 5 years. She became involved in the original Region 5 after the Manchester conference, when she was asked to be the area rep for the Chiltern area by Georgina Galvin, and then shared the role of Region coordinator with Geraldine for about 2 years until last year.

"I enjoy my work with the NCT - meeting other parents who want to make a difference, who want to help each other but above all to have fun and to support a charity that is close to all our hearts. I really do feel that I have an NCT family. My annual weekend away with "the girls" is the NCT conference and I look forward to it each year."

Outside of the NCT - and its easy to forget that the NCT is just a part of us - she is an administrator for the local newspaper and she also runs her own business - which started as a spin-off of the NCT sales. This gives her lots of opportunity to tell parents-to-be about the NCT and a magazine with the local contact numbers is never far from her hands! She also enjoys a glass of wine or two and a good gossip!