Rockwatch helped to foster my passion for fossils from an early age. When I was sixteen, I entered the annual Rockwatch competition. I wrote a report on my own fossil collection, organised all the specimens in a cabinet, gave them all numbers and labels, illustrated and photographed each one, and was delighted to find out a few months later that I was one of the winners! Looking back, this was an obvious step towards becoming a curator, and maybe it even gave me the confidence to study palaeontology at Portsmouth University. I followed this with an MSc in Palaeobiology at Bristol and a PhD on plesiosaurs at University College Dublin. I am now the Collections Access Officer (Natural History) at Wollaton Hall, Natural History Museum, Nottingham. I continue my interests in plesiosaurs with my website: The Plesiosaur Directory. I also have a Dinosaur Toy Blog. Recent work has led to a major new exhibition coming to the UK in the summer of 2017, called Dinosaurs of China. Ever since those early days as a Rockwatch member I’ve remained a strong advocate for the club. Rockwatch continues to encourage, support and inspire new generations of young geologists to pursue a career in Earth science.