My Page 1 Woman, Avril da Costa Maia, has turned her battle with depression into a business service that helps others to conquer the limiting effect by creating excellence.

With loss and heartbreak a narrative in her life – the death of her mother and her first child, having to leave Zimbabwe, (the family home), her 2nd born placed on a ventilator at birth and not expected to live, her 3rd child born with a disability and serious financial difficulties, you’d have expected her to hit a permanent rock bottom...

When poverty and hunger are real for 13 million people in the UK, this is an obscene amount of food to bin. 

And here’s the thing – many of us don’t think twice about wasting food because many of us aren’t aware of food poverty. 

So what do such startling statistics have to do with my Page 1 Woman? Everything, because she’s a co-founder of the charity, Plan Zheroes. Launched in 2010, it aims to achieve zero food waste and zero hunger...

For many of us, swimming the Channel ranks alongside walking on the Moon – high risk adventures attempted by a ‘super human’ few. And usually, the ‘super human’ few are never ourselves – always someone else.

My Page 1 Woman is definitely not ‘super human’. But, she’s fearless, persistent, driven and has a tendency to ask ‘bold questions’ that other people might shy away from.  She spots opportunities, calculates the risk but goes for them anyway. And she has dared to dream big and take on challenges that push her personal boundaries. She has the usual self-doubts – well, she’s human – and she’s definitely inspirational. She’s a Page 1 Woman with a twist....

Some people might have low expectations of a woman with this kind of academic history. But in the case of my Page 1 Woman, they’d be wrong, because her capabilities belie the qualifications with which she left school...

This woman has proven that your academic performance at school need not set the tone for the rest of your life. In fact, she’s proven that the school environment and unchallenging teachers can limit the brightest amongst us.  And leaving and finding a thirst for continuous learning can be the thing that spurs you on. So it was for Carol Stewart, director of ‘Abounding Solutions’...

If you were 20 and was told to go buy a family home and settle your younger siblings in a big city far from your Midlands roots, could you do it? As horrified as my Page 1 Woman was, she rose to the challenge and excelled. In fact my Page 1 Woman has led a life characterised by big challenges which would have fazed many. When just 14 years old, she took responsibility for the care of her seriously ill mum and became a surrogate mother to her 3 younger siblings. Whilst she did well, it meant that she had to leave school at 16 and sacrifice the opportunity of a university education. However, there were pay-offs....

When you hear of a strong-willed 16 year old girl, what image comes to mind? A stereotypical ‘difficult’ adolescent? My Page 1 Woman, Hilary Robson, might have been seen as such. But it was precisely her determination and refusal to accept the status quo that got her into a ‘male profession’, where she became a director at the age of 29. When asked by her career advisor, “Have you thought about a nice bank job, dear?” Hilary Robson wasn’t fazed by gender stereotypes. And when denied work experience in....