Dot began diving in 1986 with the British Sub Aqua Club and holds Advanced Diver and Open Water Instructor qualifications, having been instructing since 1990. While with the BSAC she undertook compressor operation, search and recovery and rescue and held the BSAC Lifesafer Instructor Award. She is also affiliated to the Sub Aqua Association (SAA) and CMAS. She crossed over to SSI in 2018 and can teach most specialities within the SSI family. She is a qualified nurse and regularly teaches on React Right and Search and Rescue Courses.
She has over 2000 dives, most of which have been on the South Coast of England from Dorset to Cornwall with extensive experience of wreck diving, but has also dived in Wales, Scotland and the North East Coast as well as the Caribbean, Mexico, Egypt and Malta.