Born Paula Dunn in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, she was a member of the Trafford Athletics Club (formerly Stretford). She finished sixth in the 100 metres at the 1985 AAA Championships, before making rapid progress in 1986, improving her 100 m PB from 11.67 to 11.25 secs (she also ran a wind-assisted 11.14), winning both the AAAs and UK National 100 metres titles. At that year's Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, she won a silver medal in the 100 metres, just one one-hundredth of a second behind the winner Heather Oakes but ahead of the Canadian Olympic finalists Angella Issajenko and Angela Bailey. She then teamed up with Oakes, Kathy Cook and Joan Baptiste to win gold in the 4x100 metres relay. Later that year she placed seventh in the 100 metres final at the European Championships in Stuttgart.