My name is Vivian Ashley. Viv is how I like to be addressed. I am 54 years old. Am I 54? Am I really 54? I feel like I'm still 30 in my head. 

I left school when I was 16 because I didn't think I was academically equipped to do anything else, and I had dreams of being a teacher, a researcher, professor, but it was just a dream that I never thought would ever happen. But thankfully, Rachel gave me the opportunity to take some time out from work and go and do an undergraduate degree at University of Essex in politics and philosophy. And I loved it so much and did so well that I stayed on to do an MA. And I loved that so much and did so well, I got a scholarship to work on a PhD, so I ended up taking, my three years of taking out from full time work, ended up being more like eight years. 

And unfortunately towards the end of my PhD was when I was diagnosed with cancer. And there of course are multitudes of fears and worries that you have when you're diagnosed with cancer. One of the things that I was worried about is that I came so close to achieving my goal and yet it's not going to materialise because of what, you know, the treatment, that I'm going to have to have and the fact that I might not survive. So it was incredible that I was still able to work hard on it. I've had my initial treatment and I had a period of being in remission for probably around 18 months and during that period I finished my PhD, graduated, best day of my life, nearly. And so it was something that cancer didn't take away from me.

I think some of my happiest memories, well the happiest memories, been associated with the sea. We travel a lot to Scotland in our camper van where you can literally, you know, camp on a beach in certain places. What is it about it? It's about association. It's about the colour. It's about the movement. There's something very… refreshing, I think, about the sea. Something quite healing about it, I think.

I love losing myself in a book. And it’s particularly wonderful with audio books, because you can lose yourself whilst doing something like painting or gardening; two of the things that I've grown to love doing. 

I found that I can paint. I went through life not thinking I could do any art whatsoever and I've surprised myself in that, although I'm not a natural, I can follow a course and I've painted a picture, pictures that I'm really rather proud of. So yes, listening to a book whilst gardening or painting. I think they're my favourite kind of spaces to be in, when I'm not with Rachel.