President of the Conference, 2017. Born inBolton into an Anglican family and brought up there and for a time in Sierra Leone, she became a Methodist through the Sunday School and chapel in Farnworth. She trained as a nurse and worked on neonatal wards before moving to nursing and health management in several locations, always involved in her local church. She became a local preacher in 1992, offered for presbyteral ministry, and was trained at Hartley Victoria College, 1993-95. After serving in Stockport and Warrington, where she was appointed superintendent in 2002, she was stationed as Chair of the Nottingham and Derby District in 2010. She has served on numerous connexional committees and ecumenical groups, including the Methodist Council and the Strategy and Resources Committee, has been actively involved with Easter People and has promoted Fresh Expressions in each of her appointments. She married John Mellor in 1975.