When I sold my business designing hand-painted picture tiles, to return to my studies as a marine biologist, my friends thought I was mad. But my passion for marine ecology and conservation had drawn me back after 11 years away — and little did I know how far it was going to take me.

Having enrolled at Plymouth University in southern England in September 2015 for a Masters course, I was fortunate to be taken on as a student for a research project at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML).

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