Getting me started into squash was no easy task for my parents David and Sue. I was a little, shall we say, reluctant to play at first. Once the initial "I'm too cool to play sport and get sweaty" phase wore off though there was no stopping me.

There was quite a good junior setup at Swinton, which had County standard boys, so I was pushed along with their training and playing schedules. They used to laugh and joke at me because I was so bad and had a massive 'helicopter' swing!

My first proper coach was a guy called Chris McManus who was based in Rochdale, about 30 minutes drive away from me. So every week Mum or Dad would take me there for an hour's coaching. I progressed quite quickly and made the Lancashire County girls' team at number five. Within 12 months I was playing number one, and I went on to win the Junior County Championships.

My next aim was to get on the National Rankings, and when a couple of months later, I got on at number 16 I was chuffed to bits.

In my last year of junior squash I was selected to play for England, in Belfast at the Home Internationals. Representing your country is the highest achievement, and I hope to do the same at senior level.

After finishing college I wanted to play more competitive squash, so I decided to work part-time so that I could carry on having coaching and playing small tournaments. My coach now was David Pearson.

In 1998 I joined WISPA so that I could play on the world Circuit. It's really hard to start with, having to pay your own travel, hotel and every other bill, and earning virtually no money. 

But it's worth persevering with, and I'm really enjoying it at the moment - looking forward to rising up the rankings, representing England ...  but let's save that for another day!

Vicky