My married name is Irene Brand, but I was born a Ferguson in 1948 in the Fife town of Kirkcaldy. My father, following a spell in the Royal Air Force during the war years was a plasterer, and my mother was a comptometer operator with Nairn's, the linoleum manufacturer. Following my school years, I spent a short time as a shop assistant before marrying my husband, Morris, who was serving in the Royal Air Force as a Transport Technician. We married in 1966 and had a 'year long' honeymoon in Cyprus as Morris was two-thirds through a three-year tour!
We spent the next 23 years travelling between UK and Germany until Morris's retirement from the RAF in 1993. We settled down in Stowupland, which is a village just outside the Suffolk market town of Stowmarket. I have been working with young children since 1980 in playschools, currently as a crèche assistant where I have been working since 1992.
I have two children, Lindsey and Neil, and two grandchildren, Mackenzie and Ethan. Lindsey is married to Dale whom she met when she went to America in1991 and they live with daughter Mackenzie in Michigan, USA. Neil is married to Maxine and they also live in Stowupland with son Ethan.