Working together

As a scientist, I truly believe it’s really important that we look after nature. As a child, my father got me a greenhouse and I got involved in growing plants and really enjoyed watching seeds germinate. I used to keep good records of how quickly that they’d flower or produce fruit and vegetables. My childhood passion for nature has never really left me and I’m now lucky enough to live in an old farmworker’s cottage in the country.

I’m Fiona Cook and I work as a scientific leader in biopharma discovery in Stevenage.

I think immersing myself in nature has really helped me over the years, deal with some difficult situations. When my father was taken seriously unwell, he received surgery and they kept him in a coma for a couple of days, but after that he didn’t come around. We didn’t know how long this was going to go on for, and this is when I started walking around the GSK Stevenage site.

You could just switch off; it was very good for my wellbeing. Yes, I would think about what was happening with my father when he was in hospital, but I knew that was out of my control. I still walk around the site every day and try and deliberately leave time in my calendar to do that.

I’m really excited now because I’ve got the opportunity to take my passion for nature into the workplace. At GSK we have an aim: to have a positive impact on nature by 2030. We’re aiming to increase the biodiversity at all of our sites. The Stevenage site has been selected as the first site for a major biodiversity project.

There’s to be a new pond put in, with the idea that where you get water, you attract new wildlife. There’s going to be replanting of the dry waterbed and a medicinal garden will be put into the centre of the courtyard. Another focus of the project will be to create some outdoor meeting areas. This will be really good for people’s wellbeing because they’ll be able to go outside, they’ll be able to connect, whilst enjoying the biodiversity.

By looking after the planet, I truly believe we can help people stay healthy, help with their wellbeing. Some of the medicines used today have been derived from the natural world. Potentially we can find some new medicines by really taking care of our natural environment.

I’m super proud to work for a company that does invest so much in biodiversity. It’s really going to have a big impact over time.