Karen Lord trained at The Middlesex Hospital, London before going on to hold posts as a cancer nurse in Sheffield, Nottingham, London and Norfolk and then moving to a post as a Macmillan Palliative Care Nurse at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. More recently she has acquired research skills alongside supporting people with life limiting conditions and was awarded a PhD through Leicester University in 2014. In September 2016 she was appointed as a Mesothelioma Nurse Specialist based in Leicester, a post part sponsored by Mesothelioma UK.