Maggie Burgess grew up in Canada and trained as a nurse. She qualified as an open-heart intensive care nurse and spent several years working in Saudi Arabia, organising trips to Nepal in her spare time.She founded Promise Nepal, a charity aimed at helping to provide medicine, education and rehabilitation for those affected by leprosy. Maggie studied at Brunel University London and is a Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society, The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the Royal Anthropological Institute. In recognition of her outstanding services to international communities, she has been awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Social Sciences from Brunel University in 2009.