Eleanor Marks.

Eleanor Marks is ready for a major career change.

After four and a half years of getting up at three every morning and using weekends to complete her studies while holding down a day job as a senior administrator, this Five-Star Staffer is set to resign from her position at UCT at the end of the year and begin a new career as a chartered accountant.

With her BCompt degree from Unisa under her belt, Marks will be leaving UCT's Women's Health Research Unit in the Department of Public Health to start her articles with a Tokai accounting firm.

"I'm a numbers person," she confesses. "I enjoy following a paper trail, paying attention to details and finally seeing the bigger picture."

And if Dr Di Cooper's words of praise are anything to go by, Marks is about to take the accounting profession by storm.

"Her outstanding qualities are her efficiency and versatility. She is able to anticipate issues and demands and deals with them pre-emptively. She takes great initiative in this regard, anticipating things that need to be done, even when we don't think of them," noted Cooper, who is the unit's executive director.

"Personality-wise she absolutely shines," Cooper added. "She is calm and unflappable and has a warmth and compassion from which we can all learn."

Marks, who has been with the unit for the past seven years, says her colleagues have supported her from day one.

"They have encouraged my development even though it meant I wouldn't be ploughing back my skills into the unit."

With studying out of the way, Marks, who has a teenage daughter, is now using her early mornings to indulge in another passion - running.

Having just completed her first 10km race, in a little over an hour, Marks says she is ready to move on to bigger and better things.

"Running is wonderful because it's all about goal setting and monitoring your progress. It allows you to see how you develop and grow each day. Besides the health benefits, running has affected and improved my everyday well-being. It's contributed to my very successful year."

Monday Paper wishes Marks well as she runs with great enthusiasm down her new path.