She was born in Gibraltar to a Spanish father and English mother, studied medicine at Nottingham University, worked in the Scottish Highlands on graduation then spent two years at the Australasian College of Sports Physicians before completing her MSc in Sport and Exercise at London's Queen Mary University. After her post-graduate studies Carneiro joined Islington PCT's Public Health department, continuing her training at the Whittington Hospital and the British Olympic Medical Institute's Intensive Rehabilitation Unit at Bisham Abbey before earning a place on the UK Sports and Exercise Medicine Specialist training programme. She worked with Team GB athletes in the build-up to the Beijing and Olympics and with Hope Powell's England women's football team. (www.telegraph.co.uk)