I quit school after GCSEs because learning just didn’t interest me. I became an air hostess a few years later and immediately fell in love with the lifestyle. I was flying around the world, working up to 90 hours a month and living in busy apartments with friends. It was tiring but I had more free time than in a nine-to-five job. I had a fantastic social life, great friends and I was having a ball. The fact that I hadn't finished my education didn’t make a difference.
Until last year, I was a trader in the City working for BP, I spent my days on the phone and computer, talking to buyers and sellers and watching the market.
Rumbling along in the back of a tank, with the shouts of fellow soldiers all around me, I had a nagging feeling I just couldn’t shift - I hadn’t done any chemistry homework. An odd thought for an army captain. Maybe, but my life as a soldier had taken a very different turn in recent months, after I'd decided to re-train as a doctor. Due to the demands of my job, I was studying online from wherever I was in the world.