Margaret Oakley was born in South London on Good Friday April 8, 1949. Her father was a toll collector and private policeman for the Market Authorities at Covent Garden and her mother a housewife. Ms Oakley went to a private school in Streatham and completed her A levels at college, moving to the Isle of Wight in 1971 after qualifying at speech therapist college Oldrey-Fleming in London. After living on the Island for a time, she moved to Surrey to study at Moor House, later returning in her new role as a chief speech therapist. She had been approached by the Isle of Wight NHS and did sterling work with cancer patients, introducing a support club at St Mary s Hospital.