Born in the early 70s and growing up in Braunschweig, I sat my university entrance examinations in 1990 at Martino-Katharineum College. As a result of many years involvement in the Church’s children and youth movements, I began my civil service in the same year at the Braunschweig Children’s Clinic.

In 1991 I took up a place as a student of Human medicine at the Medical Hochschule Hanover and graduated in 1998. My time spent as a volunteer and then, later, on study placement at the Braunschweig Children’s Clinic deepened my interest in Paediatric medicine as my specialisation. In 1998 I finished my year as a medical trainee in Braumschweig with the medical state examination and began as a House Officer at the Children’s Clinic at the Clinic Wolfsburg. After three and a half years there I transferred to the Children’s Hospital on the Bult, where I remained until I was made a Registrar specialising in Neonatal medicine. I wrote my doctoral thesis on a psycho-medical theme, looking at the experiences of mothers in Neonatal Intensive Care and the treatment and nutrition of high-risk premature babies.

In 2006, as a Consultant, I moved to the Children’s Clinic Neustadt, within the Clinical Region Hanover, where I remained until leaving in late summer 2014.