Omayma Targam was born and raised in Egypt. She came to England in 1977. Having to leave her home country as a newly-wed, she describes facing many challenges leaving her family behind while trying to settle in the UK. Her lifeline was writing letters and arranging for occasional international telephone calls. However, she tried to make herself busy with her new life and her son was born a year later. It was difficult to settle at first: her husband’s work as a doctor involved moving every six months. She lived in Yorkshire and Scotland - where she hardly found any Arabs - before moving to Solihull in 1984. She recalls how difficult it was to give birth to her first child on her own without any family support: “I was completely by myself. I remember when it was visiting time when I was in the hospital and I used to just close the door because everybody has visitors and I am all by myself, I have nobody.”

After her second child was born, Omayma’s husband was offered a job in Saudi Arabia and they moved between Egypt and Saudi Arabia for eighteen months before coming back to England. This time the move to England was much easier as she came to realise that England was where she felt at home. Of her early days in Solihull she found that there were very few Muslims there and as a Muslim woman she stood out. As they settled into life, they made connections with other Arab and Muslim communities. Omayma supported her husband in establishing his GP practice, which was set up with intention to  help the local Yemeni community and offer them a service where their language was not a barrier for access to healthcare. They made many financial sacrifices to establish the GP practice and she also worked as a receptionist in the surgery. She found the work very rewarding, due to the support it provided to her husband and the knowledge that she was serving the local community. Omayma continued to work in the surgery until her son graduated from medical school and they were able to retire and leave the practice to him.

She has also built a strong social network, involving herself with the Muslim Student’s House and the Amanah mosque. In more recent years, she has supported her son in his project to establish The Olton Project.