MK PEOPLE

I just happened to be going through one of the computer magazines during my break and I noticed a tiny advert about an IT consultant’s job in Milton Keynes. I’d never heard of Milton Keynes and had no idea where it was but I just got curious.

I knew I had to make Milton Keynes friends if I didn’t want to stay lonely. So I started a Facebook group to see if there were any other mums out there in the same position as me… and there were.

I happened to fly to Luton airport and then I caught a bus to go to Bolton and on the way it passed through Milton Keynes and I said how wonderful it looked with it’s nice countryside and everything.

It was while I was pregnant I founded Mumpreneurs – the very first organisation to support mums in business in Milton Keynes.

I am deeply passionate about the museum, but I’m equally passionate about Milton Keynes as a place. We have everything! I think it’s just fantastic.

I came here as a junior in 1972 and joined the Development Corporation where I developed my career to becoming the commercial director, responsible for selling Milton Keynes to the world!

I grew up in London and didn’t think there were any opportunites there so I moved to Milton Keynes at the age of 16.

I’m now the youngest manager of the biggest and best leisure asset in Buckinghamshire; Xscape.

I love being from Milton Keynes and telling people all the great things about it. This really is the ‘City of Dreams’.

Milton Keynes has been very good for us – I mean location wise it’s fantastic – easy access to the airports, to a lot of suppliers who are local to this vicinity, Silverstone just up the road, so it’s worked incredibly well for us.

I absolutely love what the place has become. Anywhere in Milton Keynes, in five or ten minutes you can be in a really nice green space and get around with the kids on their bikes. It’s wonderful!

I am dressed as a human sized princess most of the time if I’m honest!!

I helped raise over £44 thousand pounds last year visiting very sick children around Milton Keynes

It was through Henry that I found my passion for Milton Keynes. When Henry was sick there was talk of us having to travel abroad for his treatment. The community got together and raised 140k within 10 months for the treatment. It was phenomenal.

I’ve run the tea shop at the Museum for 17 years. We came to MK in 75 because my late husband got a job with the Development Corporation – he was with the landscape department. There wasn’t much here when we came.

I was born in Newport Pagnell 65 years ago, before Milton Keynes was even thought about. Life was very quiet back then! At that time you could get the bus to Stoney Stratford or Wolverton if you needed anything, which wasn’t often as everything we needed was in Newport.

At first it was a very strange place because it’s a unique city and I think people who haven’t lived here don’t understand it. But when you live here, you get a feel for its community and its environment.

When I came here I wondered why it was called Conniburrow. I was informed that conni is rabbit in French and burrow is obvious!!

I want to leave something on this earth when I’m gone. Something that people can listen to and remember me for.

I want to make Milton Keynes a place that thrives by nurturing and capitalising on the wealth of Diversity that has taken root in our City.

I love the history. I love the link to Bletchley Park. I love the people, the charity shops, the green.. I would not want to live anywhere else!!

Our photograph was used as one of the main adverts to attract people to move here. I’m the small boy with the Buck Rogers T-shirt and shoes the wrong way!

A special place for me is the Iron Trunk aqueduct which carries the Grand Union Canal across the River Great Ouse. This is somewhere I love to come and bring friends and family.

I’m involved with Rotary and our main charity event in Milton Keynes is a swimathon which so far in total has raised half a million pounds.

It’s not just MK 50th birthday – it’s mine too!! it’s really exciting and definitely a good way to make my 50th memorable.

People keep calling me Mrs Milton Keynes!! But they’re right – I love it here apart from the absence of sea salt, we literally have it all.

We have one son, two grand daughters, who are also living in MK so I am here to stay as there is no other place I would rather be.

I brought my company here in the mid seventies. We were in London and expanding but couldn’t afford it so I thought Milton Keynes would be a very exciting place to grow a company and a family.

When I came Milton Keynes, just before the Pagoda was built, I didn’t think I’d still be here nearly forty years later but I just carry on spreading the message every day.

My dream is going into Indian street food. Probably bring a cart over from India and take it around to do lunches, events, who knows, Latitude or Glastonbury!

In the last few years I have become well known for my work on the Rosetta probe Philae lander.

There’s a clip of me on the BBC Science pages which makes me cringe, but that people say I should be proud of, because it shows my passion for science.

I believe in placing the power to tell stories in the hands of the marginalised. I think sustainable development can only be achieved through the triple bottom line of economic growth, social equality and environmental protection. To achieve this I run several projects in Milton Keynes.

I was born with Cerebral Palsy. It’s a struggle and early on it was difficult understanding the world, because I was so blocked out from everything and why I was different.

I’ve seen countless numbers of children from the area come through my doors. And not just children that want to go on and perform as a profession.

Back in the mid-70s my parents decided to move to the very new Milton Keynes. In those days you could just choose your house – it was a city in need of a population. I loved it immediately.

In November 1997 I was the marketing manager for Railtrack and was called in to either privatise the Royal Train by hiring it out to make money or to lay it up.

At the age of 16 I got a job as a landscape trainee with the then development corporation. I really felt part of developing and building a city in a positive way.

MK really launched my career, I just got involved where I’m from to see what people like, and with MK being so new it’s like a fresh pallet – it’s not like they have preconceptions, people listen to anything if it’s good!!