Abbey Child was recognised for her outstanding contribution to the club.
Last Wednesday, Cambridge ‘99 Rowing Club held a ceremony to name their new boats after some long-serving members who have massively contributed to the club.
The new W8 has been named after Lucy Cavendish alumna, Abbey Child (Public Health, 2014).
Abbey studied an MPhil in Public Health at Lucy Cavendish College after completing a BSc in Human Biology from Loughborough University. Following graduation from Cambridge, she moved initially into research on physical activity and nutrition-related behaviours on public health, before making the shift into working at a Pharmaceutical company, where she helped develop non-drug solutions to support patients taking medication for immunological conditions.
“Through working with various vendors, I realised that I could combine my interest in epidemiology and public health gained during my degree with strategic thinking to support pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with achieving access for their products in a variety of markets. This varies from creating value communication documents to assessing the financial value of an asset through forecasting.”
Abbey joined Cambridge ‘99 in 2016 after learning to row at Lucy Cavendish during her Masters. Not long after joining, she took up a committee role as Race Secretary, arranging entries and managing the finances related to those entries.
“In 2020 (during the pandemic!), I ran for Women's Captain at the club, and am now entering my third year as Captain. Responsibilities range from day-to-day management and organisation of the women's crews training and racing, through to contributing to overall strategy and priority planning as part of the rowing committee and Board of Directors.”
“We have been unable to hold a boat naming ceremony for our recently purchased boats in the last few years due to Covid. As a result, this year we finally held a ceremony to name four of our newer shells, as well as renaming many of our women's boats to include surnames and fully recognise individuals contributions to the club. Boat names are decided by a select few of the Board of Directors, and I was shocked and thrilled to be surprised by the announcement for our current Women's first boat, which has now been named the Abbey Child! Rowing has been a huge part of my life since learning to row at Lucy, and I've met many of my closest friends at both boat clubs, so to be recognised at the boat naming made me even more grateful to be part of the community. I look forward to continuing to play an active role at both Nines and LCCBC for years to come!”