Helen is a native of the Black Country, in the heart of the industrial West Midlands. She moved north to train as a teacher in the Aire Valley in West Yorkshire; liked the area and has remained there ever since.

Having concluded that education was not her ideal career path, Helen spent over 20 years with what is now known as BT.  This was an exciting time in the development of technology, with the switch-over from electro-mechanical and simple electronic telephone exchanges, to a fully digital network: the rise and fall of the fax machine: personal mobile communications and the merging of communications and computing equipment.

Moving into self-employment in the mid-noughties has enabled Helen to establish Thread of Life as an independent supplier of ‘most things crochet’.

In more recent times, Helen has become a volunteer Community Health Champion for her local NHS Care Trust and performs a similar role with Missing Peace an independent business promoting wellbeing and support, especially for people who are dealing with mental health challenges.  Helen is a holder of the Mental Health First Aid training certificate and has also attended an in-depth course on Intentional Peer Support.

An active member of the Knitting and Crochet Guild, since 1988, Helen has led workshops at local and national events.  She has also represented the Guild on stands at shows such as The Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate.

Helen has successfully completed Parts I and II of the prestigious International Diploma in Crochet distance learning course and is slowly making progress on Part III.  Along with a small number of others, Helen is an Associate Assessor for Part I of this course.

Helen offers group and individual lessons on all aspects of crochet.

When away from her business and personal creative projects, Helen enjoys driving her 1992 Rover Mini Cooper.