Sally was educated in England and gained her Honours and Masters in history from Oxford, after which she worked as an investment analyst and fund manager for Baring Brothers, an English merchant bank. In the late 80s, Sally moved into training and education and acquired her Postgraduate Certificate of Education from the Roehampton Institute in London. In 1995, Sally moved with her husband, initially to Johannesburg, and in 2000 to Cape Town, where she still lives with her family.

Sally’s interest in developing writing skills in the workplace began through her work at the Professional Communication Studies unit at the University of Cape Town, where she worked from 2003 to 2007. At the same time, Sally wrote a series of English textbooks for Oxford University Press, having been inspired to do so by the lack of writing and communication skills she saw students bringing with them into their undergraduate studies. In 2006, Sally set up Footprint Communications, a company that specialises in developing all aspects of professional writing and communication for a range of clients in both the professional and business fields, with a special emphasis on document design and integrating technology and targeted computer skills to support a robust writing process.