Vanessa has been working at the Sport Wales Institute since 2003 after completing a BSc (Hons) in Human Biology and Exercise at Oxford Brookes University.

Starting her career as a Laboratory Technician, Vanessa juggled her work with an MSc in Sport and Exercise Science at UWIC and went on to complete her BASES Supervised Experience before becoming an accredited physiologist.

Now the Physiologist and Talent Scientists for Sport Wales, Vanessa has worked with some of Wales' most successful athletes. In 2006 she worked as the Physiologist for Team Wales at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games where she set up a lab to monitor bloods as well as conducting hydration monitoring and recovery sessions. She then went on to play a vital role in athlete preparation for the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games, advising athletes on acclimatisation, cooling and travel fatigue and working with British Swimming at the their holding camp in Doha.

Predominantly working with athletics, cycling and swimming, Vanessa's role requires her to develop strategies to ensure optimal performance is achieved at designated points throughout an athletes' training cycle, from fitness testing, either in a sports science lab or out in the field, to regular monitoring of the body's response to training programmes and competition.