Since 1988 she has led projects into reversing the decline in several species through research, practical and policy measures at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Wildlife and Wetlands Trust.
Pain worked from 1988 on ecotoxicology at Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat in the Camargue, France, and from 1992 was employed in the research department of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
This included multinational programmes for recovery of the critically endangered spoon-billed sandpiper and the madagascar pochard.
[6] She also continued her research and policy work to reduce lead poisoning of wild birds from ammunition sources.
[6] Pain became keen on birds at the age of seven, inspired by a teacher while at junior school in her home town of Ramsgate.