It's been an eventful year and Christmas is a time that makes us reflect.

I don’t think it felt real for one moment that at the age of 51 I would become an MP. My life certainly hasn’t been a smooth progression through a series of plans to get to this place. I came from London after a decade as a lawyer to Cornwall 19 years ago to follow my naval pilot and the dream of having a family. Although I have been lucky to have the most amazing son, the marriage didn’t last and I became a teaching assistant for seven years.

Despite 30 years in the Labour Party, elected office didn’t come until I was given a hard push by the late Candy Atherton (to whom I will forever be grateful) and after six and a half years as a councillor I’ve been so honoured to be elected to be the MP for Truro and Falmouth at the second time of trying.

Life has changed somewhat since. My son started university just after I started at Westminster and there’s a similarity to our positions. We both had to find somewhere to live and spend the greater part of our time away from home. And Westminster can feel very much like a public school or university. From the steamed puddings and custard that are served in the cafes and tearoom every day to the incomprehensible rules and the damp accommodation. Except I don’t think that students have so many rats and mice in such close proximity (our office is at river level, which although is lovely as hearing the water lapping at the walls makes me feel at home, it doesn’t help with the damp or the rodents).

In the first five months, as a government, we've done so much. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that in the drama of the news cycle. I've voted on bills to nationalise the railways and buses, massively increase rights for renters and workers (including a minimum wage that is finally getting to the rate that people can live off without the need for benefits), support our NHS with £25-billion to start to shrink those waiting lists, set up a new publicly owned energy company to help us get to our pledge of carbon free electricity, pass new laws to clean up our water... It's not going to be an easy first 18 months, but people will judge us by our results at the time of the next election and I'm determined that what they'll find in five years is a stronger, wealthier and healthier Cornwall with good jobs for our young people and houses everyone can afford to live in.

However long I end up having in the gothic palace by the river, I’m determined to make it count for Truro and Falmouth.

Jayne Kirkham

Labour MP for Truro and Falmouth