 She was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1958 and was awarded LLB in 1959 while a lecturer and assistant clinical pathologist at Charing Cross Hospital and Medical School.Her medical thesis on perinatal candida infections led her permanent interest in mycology.She later became a member of the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) Board when the Service's infectious diseases surveillance role was becoming more prominent and the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre was also expanding.