Margaret Sparshott trained as a general nurse at St. Thomas' Hospital London in 1955 and is also a trained midwife. After several years in general nursing in England, she worked abroad for twenty years as a neonatal nurse in Greece and Switzerland. She also spent nine months working for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Cyprus during the Turkish invasion, and was Assistant Director of Nursing at a private hospital in Geneva. In September 1986 she returned to England to a post as staff nurse on a neonatal intensive care unit in Plymouth, where she began researching the problem of newborn pain.Margaret has lectured and written many articles on the environmental problems of the sick/preterm baby in hospital. She contributed to the book 'Relating to the Relatives: breaking bad news, communication and support' published in 1996. Her own book 'Pain, Distress and the Newborn Baby' was published in 1997. In 1991 she was the winner of the Nursing tmes/3M National Nursing Award for Practice and in 1998 and the three following years was a guest at the Women of the Year Lunch and Assembly at the Savoy Hotel, London.After 45 years in the profession she retired from clinical nursing in June 1999. Now she has time to enjoy the pleasures of reading, writing, gardening and singing and she still loves travelling abroad. Margaret has used poetry to put into words the experiences of her professional and spiritual life.