2/2 History: Val's parents were immigrants from Belarus who moved to England as freshly marrieds in the hopes of a better start. They were pregnant at the time with their first child, and Maxim was born there with Val following a few years afterwards. They're were comfortable working class, and a happy family and there was a lot of love.
In early high school Val developed an interest in archery that her sports teacher encouraged, even going so far as to get her a proper coach. And it was after a lot of hard work that she qualified and attended the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games and took home a silver medal. In the following high she married the man she'd been dating and by the next year the two of them had a daughter, Melissa. The daughter was followed a couple years later by a son and everything was looking at them becoming a peachy family unit forever and ever. Oh, except then they divorced when Melissa was 4 and Daniel was 2, leaving Val to raise them both and with dad Ross being a nice distant father person instead.
Val's own parents had split when Val was in her teens, her dad remarrying and having another son. There wasn't too much animosity between them all - well, no more than would usually be expected in such a case, and Val and Maxim always felt the need to look out for their new little brother, who seemed - as he grew up - like a bit of a lost cause. Eventually Val asked the much younger half-sibling to come live with her so she could keep an eye on him and attempt to get him straightened out.
Which all seemed fine and dandy and maybe she was getting the kid on track she thought and helping him find a purpose in life but, oh, instead she found out he was molesting her son which HEY BIG UNFUN AND MOMMA IS NOT IMPRESSED TO SAY THE LEAST. She kicked him to the curb, trying to get him arrested and charged, but he disappeared instead. She felt, understandably, like the worst mother ever and is constantly trying to find a way to repair and make up for it all.
Since then she's involved herself massively with support groups for child abuse and campaigns for children's rights. She's the sports teacher at London College and has been for the last almost-decade. (it's Ms Marlow thank you very much) Which was less than fun when there was a school shooting that her daughter was killed in. She remained at the school for two reasons: she didn't want to remove Danny from his friends and support networks, and she didn't want to leave the students when they'd already gone through something so traumatic.
So now it's basically just her and Danny and she sticks close to him. One might say she's overprotective and stifling.