Transitioning through the challenges of life with resilience and optimism; this I see as my most significant achievement.
I had to learn resilience early. When I was 15 my seven-year-old brother, Gregory George Davies, was killed in a shooting accident.
My mother never really recovered and I took on the caring role in my family.
At school, I was very involved with speech and drama. I was always the story-teller in the Christmas play at Barclay House – is this where the die was cast?
I got into journalism through my interest in people’s stories and I became the first woman to be a news anchor on commercial television in WA.
I rarely focus on that time now, but it is always of interest to others! By then I had three children and it was the perfect part-time role for me.
I needed all my resilience for a second time in my life when my son Arran Toby Mullins died in an accident, aged 13.
It was a huge test. All other challenges pale into insignificance against losing a child.
I had to find a way to continue to live a life of service and value to others while living with this incredible loss.
I remember seeing a rainbow the day he died and in time (a very long time) would come to a place of acceptance that he would be my guiding inspiration to live each day as just a milestone along the way.
Since 1997 I have been self-employed with my own communications business in parallel with my board career, which gained real traction after I became the WA Telstra Businesswoman of the Year.
I have served on boards across the spectrum of commerce, industry and government and they include Amalgamated Holdings Ltd, HBF Health Limited, Youth Focus and Tourism Australia.
I have a great sense of optimism and hope. I wake up grateful to be here, determined to make the most of every day and with a sense of having had a fortunate life among the people and opportunities afforded to me.
On MLC: My memories are clearest about good friends and fun times, ballet, drama, sport… an environment where you could try so many things. I still can’t sing!