After being run-over for the second time and put on the end-of-life pathway, Maria discovered a passion for all things ocean and sharks whilst being confined to her hospital side room. After taking over 3.5 years to recover, she picked up a camera and followed her passion to learn as much as possible about our underwater world, armed with a compact camera. Since returning to England in 2005, she pioneered and launched the first ever dedicated courses in the UK to show how beginners could also take beautiful, eye-catching images with their digital compact cameras, with both her and her guests' images winning awards. She authored the first ever book designed to help beginners with compact camera images which not only won "Book of the Year" in the UK Dive Industry but has since gone on to become a Best-Selling Title.