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Find out about Macmillan's key spokespeople and how they came to be at Macmillan Cancer Support.
Ciarán Devane was educated at University College, Dublin where he gained first class honours in biochemical engineering. He also holds a Masters Degree in International Policy from George Washington University, Washington DC. He worked for ICI for 8 years before joining Gemini Consulting, an international management consultancy firm. He has also served as chairman of a major housing association.
Ciarán joined Macmillan Cancer Support as Chief Executive in May 2007. Ciarán co-chairs the National Cancer Survivorship Initiative and is a trustee of the National Council for Voluntary Organisation and the Makaton Charity. He is also on the advisory council of the Cecily Saunders Institute. In January 2012, Ciarán Devane was appointed as a Non Executive Director of the NHS Commissioning Board.
Jane became Macmillan’s Chief Medical Officer in 1999 where she works three days a week. She is an NHS clinical leader, and a Consultant Clinical Oncologist at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre and Hillingdon Hospital, where she has worked for more than 20 years. She is a senior clinical lecturer at University College London and Visiting Professor in Cancer and Supportive Care at the Centre for Complexity Management at Hertfordshire University.
In her role at Macmillan, Jane provides medical services advice at board and senior management level and supports the charity's links with the royal colleges, universities, the Department of Health and the NHS.
She has had a long term interest in consequences of cancer treatments. Her activity in this area includes chairing the Maher Committee for the Department of Health in 1995, leading the UK National Audit of Late Effects Pelvic Radiotherapy for the RCR in 2000 and most recently chairing the National Cancer Survivorship Initiative| Consequences of Cancer treatments committee She has written more than 100 published articles and is a National Clinical Advisor for Aftercare and Survivorship for NHS Improvement and UK representative for cancer survivorship in Europe.
Jessica is responsible for the strategic development of Macmillan's services and for championing improvement in the quality cancer services across the UK. She is also Professor of Cancer and Palliative Care and Deputy Head of School, at the University of Southampton's School of Nursing and Midwifery.
Her first professorial appointment was in 1996 as the first professor of cancer nursing in Europe at the Institute of Cancer Research in London. She is visiting Adjunct Professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and a member of the England Department of Health Lung Cancer Advisory Group. She has written over 80 papers for academic journals, three books and numerous chapters for edited texts.
She has a Bsc in Nursing at Chelsea College, London University, a PhD from King's College, London. She trained as a cancer nurse at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London in 1984-5. She is most well known for developing a new approach to managing the symptom of breathlessness in advanced lung cancer.
She was also the first nurse to be awarded the Nuffield Trust's prestigious Queen Elizabeth the Queen Fellowship in 2001 and has published a monograph entitled 'Between you and me: closing the gap between people and healthcare'.
Dr Rosie Loftus has been Macmillan’s Lead GP Adviser since 2003. In this role she co-ordinates the activity of the Macmillan primary care community and is a Primary Care Adviser to NHS improvement cancer survivorship. She was part of the Central Team of the Gold Standards Framework during 2004when still under the Macmillan umbrella, and also part of the Macmillan Support Programme for Primary Care Cancer Leads since appointment as GP Adviser.
Rosie trained at Birmingham University and has been a GP Principal in Kent since 1989. She worked as a Clinical Assistant at the Heart of Kent Hospice for a number of years. Rosie has been a Macmillan GP Facilitator and Primary Care Cancer Lead since 2001 and until recently chaired the primary care forum at Kent and Medway cancer network. She became Macmillan GP Adviser to the London, Anglia and South East Region in July 2002.
Stephen Richards became Director for England in April 2011. He joined Macmillan Cancer Support in 1997 as a Nurse Consultant and from 2003 was Regional Director for London Anglia and South East England. Stephen has a first degree in political science and a masters degree in care, policy and management.
Stephen became a general and then mental health nurse in both the NHS and hospice sector following a career in banking. He was a Macmillan nurse and managed a range of Macmillan services while at Newham Healthcare NHS Trust.
Stephen’s particular interests are in service redesign and integrated care and how the experience of patients and service users can be measured and subsequently used to shape the design of services.
Elspeth joined Macmillan as Director for Scotland and Northern Ireland in October 2005. She was previously Head of Economic Development at Edinburgh City Council, where her responsibilities included Edinburgh's Hogmanay, regeneration of the waterfront and planning economic strategies and scenarios to 2020.
Elspeth has worked in economic development and planning for most of her career, including spells as Head of Rural Operations at Scottish Enterprise and several roles at the Scottish Development Agency. She holds a PhD from Heriott Watt University in Edinburgh in assessing the role and impact of Government on the Highlands and Islands economy.
David joined Macmillan as the General Manager for Central & South West England in May 2010. Prior to joining Macmillan he worked in social housing for 22 years, at three local authorities, most recently Tunbridge Wells Borough Council in Kent where he was Head of Housing & Health. David is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing and was previously a member and Vice-Chair of the Institute’s South East Regional Committee.
David leads the Central & South West England regional team. With his wide local authority and social housing background, David is the main spokesperson for Macmillan on social care issues. He is also a keen runner and has raised money for Macmillan by running the Great North Run in 2006 and the Brighton Marathon in 2010 and 2011.
Susan became General Manager for Macmillan Cancer Support in Wales in December 2011. Before taking the helm in Wales, she was the senior development manager working with a range of partners throughout Wales including NHS organisations, local authorities and other charities to improve cancer services.
Before joining Macmillan, Susan had an extensive and highly successful career in NHS Wales management working across acute and community care. She has an on-going interest in theories of change and complexity in management and organisations and has an MSC in Organisation Consulting.
Susan acts as media spokesperson for Macmillan in Wales. She leads the policy and public affairs agenda, taking a strategic role in campaigning and influencing the direction and delivery of cancer services in Wales.Susan is also chair of the Wales Cancer Alliance, a group of nine leading national cancer charities in Wales.
Heather has been Macmillan General Manager for Northern Ireland since 2003. She joined the charity as a nurse consultant before becoming a Macmillan service development manager.
Heather qualified as a registered general nurse in 1984. She has worked as a sick children’s nurse and then in oncology nursing, becoming Northern Ireland’s first specialist breast care nurse, where she saw the service at the Ulster Hospital grow and develop into one of the leading breast care units in Northern Ireland. In 1995 she moved to Zeneca Pharmaceuticals as an oncology nurse adviser.
Maureen trained as a nurse at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle Upon Tyne and spent the next 20 years in various roles in the NHS, including as a ward sister where her long-held clinical interest in lung cancer developed.
Maureen holds post graduate qualifications in teaching, cancer and palliative care and an MBA.
Maureen's expertise in caring for patients with cancer in an acute hospital was recognised in an award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Patient Care'.
Maureen joined Macmillan in 1998 – and has had several roles since that time including eight years as Regional Director for the East Midlands and North of England.
Maureen has been the Director for Direct Services since June 2011.
Mike is Macmillan’s first Director of Policy & Research. This directorate will help the charity become ever more successful in influencing our partners in Government and the NHS. This is key in these difficult economic times where evidence-based influencing is becoming more and more important.
Previously, Mike was Macmillan’s Head of Campaigns, Policy & Public Affairs, where he led a multi-award winning team which had successfully pushed for free prescriptions for cancer patients, for the new cancer drugs fund and to save cancer networks from the threat of abolition.
Mike's background includes over 20 years of professional public affairs work, and he joined Macmillan from the League Against Cruel Sports where he led the campaign against fox hunting. Mike has an MA from the University of Cambridge and an MBA at the University of Hertfordshire.
Mike tweets for Macmillan at http://twitter.com/MikeHobday|.
Jenny joined Macmillan in 2010 and was appointed Director of Cancer Services Innovation in June 2011.
Jenny's career began in banking with Lloyds TSB and then Morgan Grenfell. After completing her Masters in the US, Jenny joined Gemini Consulting, an international management consulting firm, where she was a Principal in their strategy practice. Jenny led large transformational change programmes across different cultures and communities, from Finland to South Africa and many points in between. She also set up and managed Capgemini's global Life Sciences and Consumer Products strategic research units with teams based in Mumbai and London.
Jenny has an MA Honours in English Language & Literature from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA in Finance & Marketing from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Duleep joined Macmillan in 2004 and has led the policy work on Macmillan’s campaigns on access to benefits, hospital travel and parking costs and free prescriptions. He has played a leading role in the National Cancer Survivorship Initiative in improving return to work provision for cancer patients.
Duleep worked in the voluntary sector for 19 years and has 13 years experience in policy and influencing work. He has worked at: the Department of Social Security; as a benefits adviser; managing the welfare rights service at Action for Blind People for six years; and led on social security and employment issues at the RNID policy team. He was, for several years, a co-author of the Child Poverty Action Group’s National Welfare Rights Handbook.
Clara joined Macmillan in 2003 and heads up Supporter Insight & Development in Fundraising, having previously led Direct Marketing and Sales programmes. She’s an ambassador for placing supporters at the heart of our thinking and for the science and professionalism that drives the best fundraising and communication programmes. She works with internal teams and agency partners to develop and share research and insight so that our activity’s based on a sound understanding of who supporters are and what they want.
Clara has clocked up more than 15 years of customer/supporter focused relationship management experience in both the commercial and voluntary sectors, representing not-for-profit interests at local and national government level and in the media.
Juliet became Macmillan’s Director of Services in December 2011. She is responsible for the development and delivery of Macmillan’s strategy and services for people with cancer. This includes driving innovation and quality in cancer services across the UK.
Juliet joined Macmillan in 1999 as Head of Planning & Policy, a position she held for eight years before becoming Director of Corporate Development for four years.
Following her own cancer experience, Juliet is Chair of the Patient Experience Board for University College London Hospital (UCLH). In 2005 Juliet became a Trustee of LTCA, the Long-Term Conditions Alliance, then Vice-Chair of the shadow Board of National Voices from 2008 – 2009. National Voices is a membership organisation which reflects the voices of services users and carers in national health and social care policy.
Juliet has worked in the third sector for nearly 20 years. Prior to that, she was in parliamentary and political affairs consultancy. Juliet read Modern Languages at Oxford University. She lives partly in London and partly in the Forest of Dean.
Hilary is responsible for all communications, marketing, campaigning and brand activity at Macmillan. She also oversees the charity’s digital function, including the delivery of cancer information and support to people affected by cancer through our website and our communications and fundraising online.
Hilary is also responsible for our customer management programme and our work to mobilise and inspire millions of people to engage with us. Overall she leads a large team of award-winning and dedicated professionals. Hilary has worked in communications for over 25 years, starting as a journalist then moving into media relations at charities including the NSPCC, where she helped launch the Full Stop Campaign. She joined Macmillan in 2001 as Head of Media, in a job share with Lynda Thomas. They developed Macmillan’s campaigning arm in 2003, created its internal communications team in 2004, helped launch our new brand in 2006 and were promoted to board level as Director of External Affairs in 2007. Hilary is now in sole charge as Lynda was appointed Director of Fundraising in 2011.
Lynda has worked in communications for 20 years, starting in consumer PR, then moving into media relations and marketing at NCH Action for Children and the NSPCC, where she was in the media team which launched the Full Stop Campaign in 1999.
She joined Macmillan in 2001 as Head of Media, in a job share with Hilary Cross. Hilary and Lynda then developed Macmillan’s campaigning arm, created its Internal Affairs team and were promoted to board level as Director of External Affairs in 2007.
Lynda was appointed as Director of Fundraising in December 2011 where she is responsible for all aspects of Macmillan’s Fundraising Programme which in 2011 raised more than £135 million.