I am the PPIE rep and Public Co-applicant with the PHIRST LIGHT team. I have worked with diverse, under-served communities with high rates of health inequalities across the Midlands for forty years. Throughout my varied working life – as a trustee of a Welfare Rights advice group, teacher, youth and community development worker, Inequalities Programme manager working in local government, in Public Health, and the Criminal Justice sector – I have worked with individuals and communities to become actively involved in issues impacting on their health.
I’ve been an informal carer for immediate family members, young and old alike with a range of life limiting conditions/disabilities. I was a lay member with various NICE committees and guideline groups for twenty years and since retirement I have become increasingly involved with the NIHR as a public contributor: reviewing for various funding streams; as a committee member of the RfPB East Midlands Advisory Panel; RDS EM Regional Advisory Board; RDS National Strategy Group; RDS EDI working group; and in presenting and advising on aspects of PPIE and EDI. All of which has afforded me so many opportunities to learn and to share my guiding passion for public involvement in addressing wider health inequalities.