Peak sporting performance Dr Nicola Keay is a Sports and Dance Endocrinologist. Nicky left NHEHS in 1983 and after a gap year read Medicine at the University of Cambridge. She qualified as a doctor in 1990 and went on to gain membership of The Royal College of Physicians in 1993. Her career has taken her to Australia, Switzerland and many places in the UK. Nicky is now working in the field of exercise endocrinology. This involves clinical work with exercisers, athletes and dancers. She is medical advisor to The Scottish Ballet Company and Chief Medical Officer of Forth which offers blood testing with medical explanation and advice. Nicky is also involved in research as an Honorary Fellow of Durham University, with recent studies in cyclists and dancers. Nicky presents webinars at various conferences and universities and supervises research students in the UK and abroad. What are your favourite memories of your time at NHEHS? I was at NHEHS for all my schooling and remember doing my entrance assessment in Redlands. I have so many fond memories of friends I
made at school, playing sport and dancing in school plays such as The Silver Curlew. I loved “musical movement” in Redlands, and clearly remember dancing to 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' by Grieg. I loved improvisation from an early age. I continued to dance outside school at the Miss King School of Dance near Eaton Rise and they were brilliant. Although we did not have the extensive sports and drama facilities that NHEHS has today, I loved sport at school. Miss Chapman was our PE teacher and although I loved individual sports such as
Nicky in her school days
gymnastics, tennis and swimming, I was not great at netball and hockey. But Miss Chapman was really lovely and supportive and saw that I had ability in tennis at least! For gymnastics we had Miss McBurney who I met up with at a school reunion a few years ago. I have great memories of swimming for NHEHS at St Paul’s Girls’ School and being amazed they had their own pool. They also had a diving board and I was asked to take part in the diving competition which I had never done before! I also remember pressing the buzzer outside Ms Percy’s office for distinction signing and waiting for the light to go green. The headmistress was very accessible and there was a real feeling of community. Did you have a favourite teacher/ subject at NHEHS? I don’t remember having a bad teacher at NHEHS; they were all excellent and it made it really hard for me to pick my A levels! In the end I took Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics and Zoology. I was inspired by Miss Jolowicz (even though I found her slightly scary!), the Biology duo of Mrs Brown and Mrs Smith and for Chemistry, Mrs Cleasby and Dr Court. The science block was being built when I was there and it was state of the art at the time which was really NHEHS OGA Newsletter 20
