I am Nicole Lowrie; I am 22 years old and live with my parents (Sam and Fay) and Golden Labrador called Mackenzie in Glasgow, Scotland. My interests are travelling, music, shopping, baking, badminton and I used to go to ballet when I was younger.  I have always loved listening to music and going to concerts to watch and hear my favourite musicians such as The Script, Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding and Olly Murs with friends and family.  Throughout my childhood my grandmother taught me how to bake cakes and pie such as apple pie/crumble, coconut pie and fruit dumpling. This has made me love baking and cooking in my spare time, watching cookery programmes and I now cherish her recipes.   

 

When I was 14 years old I had a brain haemorrhage and a year later I then took an epileptic seizure in the middle of my 4th year maths exam. This was very tough for my family and I as well as all my school friends who had been in the same class room. I was transferred from my school to hospital and then sent for an MRI and CT scan by a Neurosurgeon and also given an appointment to see a seizure Doctor.  By the time I went to see Dr Wilson about the seizure I still hadn’t had my scan results so she had a look on my file and then gave my family and I the scariest news that I had ever had, I had an Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM) in my brain which had caused the brain haemorrhage gave me Epilepsy. An AVM is a tangle of blood vessels with abnormal connections between arterials and vein. This led to me having to go for Gamma Knife surgery in Sheffield twice, first in January 2013 and then again in March 2017. At this time I am waiting for an MRI to see if my AVM is gone ,I will always have epilepsy, which is kept under control with medication, but at least if my AVM is gone I will have no more brain haemorrhages.

 

Since I was a small child I have always had an interested in travelling and learning about other cultures and have holidayed in many places such as Barbados, Orlando, New York and Europe. For my 21st birthday my parents took my older brother and I on holiday to Dubai as they know I love travelling so much. This was the greatest experience ever as we stayed in the Atlantis Palm Hotel and we got to visit the world’s tallest building (Burj Khalifa), the world’s biggest mall, watch the Burj Khalifa’s water show, and fly over Dubai in a Helicopter and lots more. My love for travel made me decide to study a HNC in International Travel and Tourism which would help me to achieve my career goal of working to become a Cabin Crew member one day or work on a cruise ship.