When Sophie Millward first entered the BBC’s Hereford newsroom in 2020, it wasn’t as a journalist, but as a cleaner.

At the time, she was a Leeds University student, not coping with her philosophy, politics and economics course and struggling to find her footing during the pandemic. She took a year out to give herself a fresh outlook on life and career.

"My mental health was in the gutter," she recalled, speaking to JournalismUK. During her time away from her studies, her debt kept piling up, and job rejections kept coming. Until one lucky break happened: a cleaning job in the BBC newsroom.

She had lived in the Middle East from an early age due to her parents' work. Though she never really aspired to be a journalist, she always had an appreciation for the BBC's work in the region.

"There's obviously no free speech or freedom of information out there," she continues. "So the BBC is such an asset for people abroad, living in those kinds of countries. I was just a big fan."