Julie Christie has been working in different roles within business and the third sector for more than three decades. Over the years she has worked with a number of charitable organisations such as Princess Royal Trust for Carers, Aberlour Childcare Trust, the Alzheimer's Society, the Royal Voluntary Service and Town Break Dementia Care. She was also an associate with the University of Stirling, where she was involved in the development of Dementia Friendly Communities. Julie is currently the Business and Fundraising Manager for Start Up Stirling, the city's food bank.

She brings considerable experience from the commercial retail industry, having held posts with national companies including AstraZeneca, Marks and Spencer, Goldsmiths, Thorntons and Laura Ashley. She holds a Bachelor of Nursing degree from the University of Glasgow and a Bachelor of Science degree with first-class Honours in Sociology and Social Policy from the Open University, which she loved doing as it concentrated on the things that fascinated her about people and culture as well as exploring how we can both see the same thing and yet hold an entirely different point of view.

Her hardest job was dealing with fraught brides when she worked in the wedding trade, where she had to develop her tea-making skills as well as occasionally mopping up tears! The most rewarding job of all - and also the worst-paid - was looking after her late Mum, who had to live with many chronic illnesses.

Julie had never tried being self-employed, so - given her passion for lifelong learning and literacy - the next logical step was to co-found a publishing business, Extremis Publishing Ltd., which continues in the long history of publishing in the city of Stirling. She is convinced that real life is always more interesting than fiction.

Her view on life is that you should never be afraid to try new things, everyone should have a fair chance, that living life is way more interesting than doing the dusting, and that she has never found a box of chocolates that she hasn’t liked yet!