I was born and bred In Fife and I graduated from Dundee medical school in 1991 . Before medical school I worked in the family grocers shop ‘on the till’ and in the back shop and during medical school I worked for nearly 12 months  as a care assistant in a residential home for the elderly  giving me insights into both a small customer orientated business and the care assistant role.

After qualifying as a doctor I, completed houseman posts and hospital training for general practice in Fife and Tayside which included achieving the Diploma in Geriatric Medicine in 1993  followed by completion of specialist registrar training for Obstetrics and Gynaecology between 1995 and 2000.  During this time I gained particular experience in cancer management and medical problems in pregnancy.

Following on from this I completed my training for General Practice as a GP Registrar at Tweeddale Medical Practice under the tutoring of Dr Jane Munro. During this time Dr John Macaskill retired and I became a partner at Tweeddale practice.  I achieved membership of the Royal College of GPs with merit in 2001 and became a tutor of Aberdeen medical students in 2005.

I then went on to complete training and assessment to be a trainer of GPs in 2006 and was lead GP on the successful RCGP Quality Practice Award submission in 2007.

I am interested in a wide variety of topics in medicine, including pre hospital care, and this is one of the appeals of general practice; along with the challenge of being a partner in a small business. I am currently involved in research on physician assistants and this year have contributed to question formulation for learning materials used for the education of doctors.

Outside medicine I am currently the mens’ captain of Lochaber Athletics Club and, after being inspired by watching the Ben Nevis race in 2000, I have now completed the race four times as well as approximately 70 other hill, cross country and road races since 2004. I live in Fort William with my wife, who works locally, as a primary school teacher and we have two high-school age children.