Barbara has been involved in the education of young people for over 25 years particularly with the teaching of modern foreign languages and is fluent in both German and French.

She started her career in paddle sports in 1984 when she became involved with a local NW canoe club and quickly became interested and successful in competitive kayaking and in the Canadian single blade paddling technique.

She started with the sport of Dragon Boat Racing in 1988 with the formation of Amathus DBC where she took on the roles of club secretary, race coordinator and women’s team manager.

Over the following years, Barbara has become one of the leading female Dragon Boat coaches in the country achieving coach level 4 in 1996, the first in the country to achieve this status.

As a competitive paddler, Barbara has won medals both at National level with her club Amathus and at international level with the British team, the most prestigious being a Silver at the World Championships in 1999. With both Amathus and the GB Teams Barbara has competed in Dragon Boat races all over the world in countries such as China, Macau, Hong Kong and America, as well as many European venues.

Barbara has been a serving member of the British Dragon Boat Racing Association’s Executive committee for 13 years and has been responsible for the development of their Child protection policy and their involvement with the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme.

Barbara is qualified in first aid and as a BDA race official.