From Rothwell to reader: how Montsaye pupil's hard work saw her become top science academic

A former Rothwell schoolgirl who scraped through her A-Levels has spoken of her pride after she became an associate professor in cognitive neuroscience.

Dr Samantha Brooks, 45, went to what is now Montsaye Academy in Greening Road and hopes her story inspires girls in the town to study sciences.

She was once told she wasn't cut out for university, but fast forward 25 years - and a lot of hard work and determination - and she is one of the top teachers at Liverpool John Moores University after becoming a reader at the School of Psychology last month.

She said: "People in Rothwell work bloody hard and I think that helped me a lot to get where I am.

"Everything I've achieved was a result of what started there.

"You can take the girl out of Rothwell, but you can't take the Rothwell out of the girl."

Over the years Dr Brooks has rubbed shoulders with some of the world's top scientists - but her meeting with arguably one of the most famous was purely accidental.

She was in Cambridge shopping when a man in a wheelchair ran over her foot.

She said: "I heard 'I'm sorry' in a robotic voice and saw it was Stephen Hawking."

Dr Brooks grew up in Columbus Crescent with parents Christopher, a farmer and then a popular taxi driver, and Patricia, who used to work in the Rowell Charter Inn.

She didn't set out to study psychology and was learning law when she went to Kettering's library during her A-Level work, where she saw an old school friend who told her she should do psychology.

She joined the course at Kettering's Tresham College and immediately knew it was the path she wanted to take.

"I was hooked," she said.

The keen swimmer admits she didn't get very good A-Level grades and managed to just about get through clearing to gain a place on a psychology course at Abertay University in Scotland in 1995.

Romance saw her transfer to Greenwich and she took a qualification to teach psychology. She then applied for a course at the top Maudsley medical school and was offered a place at King's College in London to do medical training in neuroscience.

She said: "It was the chance of a lifetime.

"I still felt like a Rothwell girl from the sticks and I had this amazing opportunity."

After passing her PhD Dr Brooks went to Sweden, completing 22 papers in two years, before moving to South Africa as part of her job to help improve brain-based psychiatric treatments for addictions and eating disorders. Dr Brooks had been trained in London by people who treated Princess Diana’s bulimia.

Based in Cape Town the Rothwell woman spent time at the notorious maximum security Pollsmoor Prison - which once housed Nelson Mandela - where they used a brain scanner on ex-gangsters they had recruited who volunteered to change.

She said: "It was really interesting and something I loved.

"I was genuinely interested in their stories and why they wanted to change their lives.

"I remember a lot of their stories even now."

Her career was going well when in 2017 her dad, who previously battled a tumour in his colon in 2014, became ill again.

She decided to move back to the UK as she was too far from home and took on a role as a senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University.

Christopher died from bowel cancer in February 2020, just before the first national coronavirus lockdown.

Dr Brooks, who was on BBC show The Truth About Takeaways in 2019, said her dad would have been "delighted" and "very proud" of her achievement of becoming an associate professor.

Some of her current research involves examining how 2,500 people are coping with lockdown measures, and how we can change impulsivity associated with those who resist the Covid rules to make people in communities safer.

She hopes her journey to becoming an associate professor will inspire girls in Rothwell to achieve their dreams and urged them to take every opportunity they get.

She said: "They shouldn't be afraid to take that risk. I took a risk and it paid off."