“The degree ceremony on Saturday was about as stressful as getting married…Especially the media attention which I hadn’t expected ( a german TV crew followed me around for two days!). But my best memory was of my mother at the University garden party in The Botanic Gardens afterwards where we were anonymous guests amongst 8,000 staff and their families. Getting my mum here had been difficult as she is a bit confused with alzheimers, but I can still see her sitting in the sunshine on the lawns in the beautiful gardens and suddenly responding to the music, tapping her feet away to the brass band and then getting up and jigging around. The whole thing was worth it for that.”