Our Council of Governors

Following open heart surgery at Papworth Hospital in 2007, Stephen became a volunteer ward visitor.  In a long career as a senior manager within the construction industry, he contributed to a number of NHS projects. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and past chair of the Cambridge centre.

Following a research and academic career in applied/engineering mathematics, Susan established and ran an organisation and management development consultancy working with Government Departments and private sector companies. She supported women in STEM initiatives at national level.

She was a Patient Governor of Addenbrooke's Hospital for 8 years and chaired the Director/Governor Forward Planning Group. Just elected, she wants to find out more about RPH and where she can best contribute. She has lupus, a chronic illness.

Abigail has been under the care of the Royal Papworth Adult Cystic Fibrosis unit since 2011.

During this time she has received regular care from all areas of both the inpatient and outpatient departments. She feels well-placed to empathise and help offer ideas for improvement based on her own positive and negative experiences of patient life and challenges. As Abigail's care at Royal Papworth will be life long she will also be able to feedback on changes as they occur.

Abigail has experience working in branding and marketing and want's to use these skills to help improve patient experience, especially in the new world of virtual healthcare.​

Ian has taught biology at Hills Road SFC since 1975 and from 1980-2012 was a tutor for the Open University. His interest is in education, communication and engagement.

In 2012 he established Big Biology Day for professional biologists to engage with the public and share their enthusiasm and is Special Advisor for Education at the Cambridge Science Centre. He’s had several links with Papworth including one of his best friends with CF receiving a double lung transplant in 2019.

In 2019 Ian helped to organize the shipment of unwanted equipment from “Old Papworth” to the only free hospital in Sierra Leone.

Richard’s medical career included time in hospitals, the RAF, research and general practice. Since retiring he has maintained an active interest in health issues as well as voluntary work at Royal Papworth Hospital and Addenbrooke’s. In late 2012 he underwent a successful pulmonary endarterectomy at Papworth. As a Governor his main interest is in the quality of care and patient safety/dignity.

Yvonne has lived in Suffolk all of her life and now lives near the Suffolk/Norfolk border in the Waveney Valley. Her entire life has been within the NHS. She is a qualified mental health nurse (RMN) and is particularly drawn to helping/supporting others in emotional distress for whatever reason. Yvonne has completed a counselling certificate with the UEA which she has used within her twenty-five year career as a practice nurse at her local medical centre.

Having deteriorating health due to an inherited heart disease she retired from nursing in 2014, however she still work there a few hours a week in admin. She also trained as an aromatherapist and is a bach flower remedy registered practitioner. 

In 2016 and with chronic heart failure Yvonne was referred to Royal Papworth for assessment for heart transplant and was duly listed. After two false alarms she received her donor organ in February 2018. Her life experience is quite varied and vast along with her insight into illness, having been an Inpatient and now an outpatient at Royal Papworth Hospital.

Details to follow...

Trevor retired as an equity partner at an accountancy practice in 2014. He suffers from Muscular Dystrophy and asthma and is a patient of Royal Papworth Hospital. Trevor has been fitted with a defibrillator and has also experienced treatment in the Sleep Study Centre. Trevor uses an electric wheelchair and understands the issues and needs of the less abled.

Doug is married with 5 sons and 10 grandchildren. He is chairman of a medium size family business in the software industry which he started 40 years ago and he is the proud owner of a Morgan classic car.  Whilst having worked and lived in the Home Counties, London and the North of England, Doug has resided in Norfolk for some 45 years.

His career started in the accountancy profession at 16 and having qualified, he moved into the commercial world of service, leisure and construction industries before deciding to start his own business.

Bob is a businessman who runs his own car dealership, having worked in the motoring industry for his entire career. He has witnessed first-hand the services provided at Royal Papworth Hospital after he underwent a potentially life-saving quadruple heart bypass 15 years ago. This spurred him on to join the Norfolk Zipper Club to give something back to the staff that cared for him. He has recently become the club’s chairman and decided he wanted to further support Royal Papworth Hospital by becoming a governor.

Trevor has spent the last 4 years as a service-user at the Royal Papworth Hospital having had a Heart Transplant in 2017 at the old site.

Most recently he worked in local government in Social Services and retired in 2016.

As a Hospital Volunteer since 2019, Trevor has a keen interest in supporting the patients journey to their recovery.

Trevor has represented Royal Papworth Hospital at the 2019 Transplant Games in Newport.

Marlene’s background is in education. She was a headteacher for almost 18 years, and has been a consultant leader, Ofsted inspector and independent education consultant.
Marlene has been involved with Royal Papworth Hospital since 2015 when a close relative underwent extensive open heart surgery. Since then, her involvement has continued on a regular basis and is predominantly with the respiratory departments.

Harvey is a retired business consultant and professional engineer, and brings to the Council of Governors a wide range of general management, commercial, and financial skills. Harvey is a returning Governor having previously served as a Governor from 2004 to 2014, during which time he held a number of positions including Chair of the Forward Planning Committee, Chair of the Appointments Committee and Lead Governor.

Michelle is a mum of 2 currently working as a Ward Sister on 4 South a Respiratory Ward.

She joined Royal Papworth Hospital in 2002 as a newly qualified nurse in Critical Care and worked her way up to become a Sister in 2012.

One of her proudest achievement while working at Royal Papworth Hospital, was becoming a Ward Sister. She loves being able to support staff and understands what it is to be a nurse.

 She became a governor to expand on her job role currently, to be able to support the staff outside of her ward and be the voice of nurses within the hospital.

I have been a consultant surgeon at Royal Papworth Hospital since 2007. We have a great staff and during this time I have led the thoracic surgery service to the best lung cancer survival results in the country.

Patient outcomes depend on the whole team. I am deeply concerned about the welfare of all staff specially those who are lowest paid and have the least secure position. In many cases this will be the staff not directly employed by the NHS but by our valued partners without whom we could not keep the services running. As a governor I am privileged to voice these views and concerns for those who do not have such a position.

I am also a Trustee of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery (SCTS) and chair the SCTS Thoracic Surgery committee. The focus of this is to deliver meaningful improvement in thoracic surgery care and to support the surgical teams. I founded the SCTS student engagement programme and still teach many students and trainee surgeons. Previously I was a Cambridge school governor and also president of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) Cardiothoracic section and remain on the council.

I am the principle investigator of various studies and have secured grants to fund research.

My wife is a consultant radiologist and we have six children and two dogs. We feel very fortunate to be part of the Cambridge and wider community. I look forward to ensuring that Royal Papworth Hospital continues its excellent mission based on the Trust Values of Compassion, Excellence & Collaboration.

Having started my career in research and development laboratories, I joined Royal Papworth Hospital in 2000 working alongside the surgical and anaesthetic teams to successfully reduce blood product usage. From there I became the administrator of the system used in Critical Care for our patient documentation. Whilst in this role I joined CUH’s Epic team to develop their electronic patient record. In 2015 I became the chief allied health professional information officer, representing my clinical colleagues in the Digital department and am now the configuration developer within our patient record team.

Rhys is Staff Governor for Royal Papworth Hospital representing the Allied Health Professionals (AHP).  He is a qualified and HCPC registered Physiotherapist and Clinical Physiotherapy Lead for the Cambridge Centre for Lung Infection and has worked at Royal Papworth in two stints first in 2007 and now since 2018. Rhys has over 20 years of experience in the NHS and has lived and worked in the East of England for the last 12 years in a variety of positions. Part of his role has been to shape the AHP strategy for Royal Papworth Hospital, enhancing his insight into the AHP services moving forwards and he is looking forward to representing this at Governor level. He is currently undertaking his MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice at Anglia Ruskin University.

Chris joined Royal Papworth Hospital in June 2012 as a Rotational Pharmacist and has undertaken a range of pharmacy roles over the last nine years.

He has developed a clinical interest in transplant medicine and played a major role in the implementation of the Lorenzo electronic prescribing system across the Trust.

As Deputy Chief Pharmacist, Chris now holds a leadership role within the pharmacy team, and also spends some time seconded to the Digital department, where he focuses on digital medicines and the clinical safety of IT systems.

Having worked at RPH in a variety of roles since I left school in 1996 I’m currently the Deputy Manager of Clinical Engineering where in addition to supporting the Head of Department in the day to day running of the department I’m the specialist engineer supporting the Anaesthesia and Ventilation equipment of The Trust.

My involvement with RPH goes back many more years than that to 1985 when my father received a heart transplant here. I believe in delivering the best care possible to our patients and making RPH a great place to work.

Outside of work I’m a keen motorcyclist and enjoy playing guitar in a rock band.

Dr Caroline Edmonds is Secretary to the School of Clinical Medicine, part of the University of Cambridge. 

Councillor Alex Malyon is the Liberal Democrat Councillor for Longstanston. She is a Member of South Cambridgeshire District Council, which covers Papworth Everard.

Lorraine joined Cambridge University Hospitals as Chief Nurse in July 2018. 

Previously she held the position of Deputy Chief Nurse at University College London Hospitals acting as Head of Nursing for the Surgery & Cancer Board, as well as corporate responsibilities including the nurse education agenda and management of voluntary services. She was seconded on a part time basis for a period of 12 months working on a pan London programme, Capital Nurse, which focussed on recruitment and retention of nurses in London, where she led on the introduction of the internal transfer programme for staff across London, a number of cross boundary leadership programmes as well as acting as executive producer on a film to aid retention. She has worked in a range of nursing roles throughout her career and has held an interim Director of Nursing role previously. She is a visiting Professor at London South Bank University. She is also a Florence Nightingale Scholar.