Working at a petrol station.

I had a cafeteria job, serving food, and some people were really nasty. There was a stack of nice, cool plates, and a stack of hotter plates that had just come out of the kitchen. So, if a person was an arsehole, I’d hand them a hot plate with a smile and watch them deal with it.

Scrabbling about under dusty floorboards as an electrician in my early 20s.

Leader of the opposition. I worked with the police service in Northern Ireland and then ran the Crown Prosecution Service. In each of those jobs, if something needed fixing, I could fix it. As leader of the opposition, you are not in power and it’s the most frustrating job I’ve ever had, and a job I hope I don’t have for much longer.

Everybody I’ve lost to suicide. When someone dies in that tragic way, you always feel you could have done more.

Before transitioning, I had a severe eating disorder. The doctor said, “Your body’s shutting down and if you don’t improve your mental and physical wellbeing, you’ll die.” Shortly after that, I started transitioning medically and my eating disorder resolved.

Passionate, loving, driven.

Cancel culture: getting stuck on the discourse rather than looking at the system.

Gender-affirming surgery. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not widely available on the NHS and a lot of it you have to pay for yourself.

Victoria Rose, a British surgeon operating on children in Gaza.