Brought up in Yorkshire, Kate read English at university and taught in London schools before moving into Adult Education, working mostly for the University of Surrey. It was one of her enthusiastic students who introduced Kate to NADFAS sixteen years ago, and since then she has served as Programme Secretary and Chairman of Farnham DFAS, West Surrey Area Chairman, and recently completed three happy years as OAR. She has been a Church Recorder and still volunteers in the local museum where she began as a new NADFAS member. Delight in NADFAS lectures led her to study for a diploma in History of Art at Birkbeck College and reinforced her conviction of the importance of life-long learning.

Kate was founder chairman and trustee of a local charity with an international outreach; a governor of a school for Children with Special Needs for twelve years and is still a governor of a girls' school. She has three grown up children and five grandchildren and lives in West Sussex with her husband John.