WE BOUGHT A ZOO!

Lynsey Martin, 35, quit her nine-to-five office job and embarked on a new adventure

- LYNSEY HOPE

Walking around the zoo with my baby boy on my hip, feeding the monkeys and meerkats, I couldn't believe this was now my home. If you'd told me four years ago that I'd have ditched my office job in the NHS to spend my days running a zoo, I'd never have believed you.

My partner Ryan, 28, and I met online and had our first date at a restaurant near my home in Essex in October 2019. As we sat chatting, Ryan told me he worked as a tiger keeper at Colchester Zoo. It's not your average job, and I have to admit I was impressed. He said it was his dream to own a zoo one day, and I was instantly struck by how passionate he was - although I never believed it would actually happen.

In June 2020, we moved in together. Ryan was always on the lookout for land for his zoo, and he'd make plans and sketches of how it might look.

I still thought it was just a pipe dream, until in May 2021, he found an old, derelict zoo site for sale.

He'd worked there years ago when it was a zoo called Tropical Wings.

A few weeks later, he came home, saying, 'We've got the keys!"