Trustees

Patron

Dr Mike Cheshire

Clinical Vice President of the Royal College of Physicians 2007-10

He has been a consultant physician in geriatric and general medicine since 1983. He has had many additional roles including Dean of Clinical Studies at a medical school; Medical Director and Director of Post Graduate Medical Education.

Since December 2009 he has been Medical Director  for the North West Strategic Health Authority. He has very recently retired from clinical practice.

During Mike’s spare time he is an exercise freak, cycling miles at weekends and enjoying swimming. He this year completed the Great North Swim in Lake Windermere.  He is married with two adult children, and a grandchild.

Mike is interested in  a ‘whole person’ approach to patient care- “I treat people who are ill and not just the disease.”

He confirms: “Sadly CFS/ME does tend to fall through the net- with many patients receiving neither the diagnosis, support nor the information they need.  I am delighted to support the ME Trust in its aim to transform the lives of those affected by CFS/ME.”

Trustees

Hannah Clifton

Chair of Trustees

Hannah is a former London solicitor. She became ill following a trip to the Far East. She was given a vague diagnosis of ‘probable ME’ by her doctor who also advised her not to tell anyone the diagnosis “because there is a stigma attached to it and people will think you have something psychologically wrong with you.” That was the only advice he gave her. The second doctor said, “Well, you probably know more about this than I do. What would you like me to do?” By the third doctor, she was bed-bound.

Hannah was ill for over 12 years, spending many of those years bedbound and in great pain. Throughout that time her G.P’s advised her that no hospital bed was available on the NHS. She was provided with just 13 weeks of social services care. Her private health insurance did not cover ME. The initial ‘probable diagnosis’ was eventually confirmed many years later. Her GP at that time had feared she may have an undiagnosed brain tumour or MS.

In May 2008 Hannah was told by her GP that she ‘probably’ would not recover. That month she heard about Burrswood Hospital. Within a month of being admitted she was well enough to begin walking along the hospital corridor.

Hannah was invited to speak at Burrswood Hospital to staff, patients and supporters in July 2010. On that occasion she launched the idea of the M.E. Trust to, initially, fund a private room at Burrswood for people suffering from CFS/ME.

Philip Courtney

Head of Partner Capital & Taxation at solicitors Clifford Chance LLP

Philip trained as a Chartered Accountant at Arthur Young McClelland Moores & Co and qualified in May 1998.  Since then, he has specialised in international tax working in the profession with Arthur Young and Touche Ross, and then in industry with the Fiat Group and for the last five and half years with Clifford Chance, one of the world’s leading law firms.  Philip has experienced at close hand some of the challenges faced, especially for children, when doctors and other professionals run out of surgical solutions.  Philip also employed a CFS/ME sufferer to help run a project and was amazed at what can be achieved with the right attitude and determination in the face of a debilitating illness.

Margaret Eyres

Director, Export Finance, Societe Generale

Margaret has spent nearly 30 years in corporate and investment banking, both in the City and in Paris. For most of her career she has focused on trade and export finance, including at Midland Bank (now HSBC), ABN AMRO and Societe Generale, the French bank she joined in 1997. Her work has taken her to Africa, Asia, Central Asia and South America for the financing of capital goods and services required for major projects in various industrial sectors.

In her personal life, Margaret is an admirer and regular supporter of the splendid work of Queenscourt, a very special 12 bed unit hospice in Southport, Merseyside that celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2011.

In the 1990s Margaret was a trustee of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind’s pension fund before moving to work in France. She is currently a director and chairman of two resident management companies in London and Southport.

Steven Kempster

Solicitor and partner at Taylor Wessing LLP, London

Steven is a partner in the Private Client group and advises across all aspects of charity and trust law, in particular on issues relating to the formation and governance of charities, not for profits, social enterprises and private trusts.  His particular specialism is advising on risk management issues and resolving disputes over the governance and administration of not for profit entities.

Steven trained and qualified at Herbert Smith where he worked closely for 10 or so years with John Wood, who in February 2008 was appointed to the board of the Charity Commission.

Steven has advised a wide variety of national and international charities, statutory bodies, and not for profits on their governance and charitable activities and dealing with the Charity Commission on registration and administration issues.   In 2007, Steven was invited to join the Charity Law Association’s working party to review the Charity Commission’s consultation document on “Charities and Public Service Delivery”.  Steven has written for various professional and industry journals in the UK, for example Charity Finance, and is a regular speaker at seminars/conferences in London and abroad.

Steven is a member of the Charity Law Association and the Association of Contentious Trusts and Probate Specialists.

Amy Tyley

PR & Communications Consultant

Amy is currently working as an independent consultant developing web and social media communications within the charity sector. From 2002 – 2011, she worked for the publishing group Trinity Mirror plc, as Head of Knowledge Management and was responsible for their Intranet and corporate websites.

Amy studied at Yale University and has a Masters in Fine Art. She worked for a digital publishing start-up in San Francisco before moving to London to join a design consultancy. She has worked for both corporate and charity sector clients which include KPMG, Credit Suisse, MS Society and RNID.

Dr Paul Worthley

Medical Adviser at Burrswood

Dr Paul trained at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, where he qualified in 1976.  He spent three years at the Worcester Royal Infirmary, went on to general practice training in Hackney and then to two years’ general practice in East London, before returning home to Australia where he worked at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital from 1983 to 1987.  He returned to Worcester to a variety of general practice and paediatric work before coming to Burrswood in 1992.  In 1996 he obtained his Diploma in Palliative Medicine.

Dr Paul always had an interest in palliative care as well as paediatrics. Since arriving at Burrswood he has been confronted by many conditions he had never previously encountered, and often by some not in any text books. That was initially the case for CFS/ME. He has over many years learnt a lot both from patients and by meeting the few medics who were gaining an expertise in this area, and has now helped  numerous CFS/ME patients.

Advisers (non-trustees)

Chris Philips GradDipPhys;MCSP;SRP

Physiotherapy Adviser

Chris worked at Burrswood from 2003 to 2005, and from 2007 until August 2008. She was the deputy senior physiotherapist and at one time was responsible for the whole department. She has maintained broad general experience, having worked in private practice for over 13 years, and also had specialist physiotherapy training in CFS/ME, hydrotherapy and in prevention of disabilities in Leprosy. She also has teacher training qualifications at City and Guilds level 2.

Chris’s younger daughter had CFS/ME from the age of 14 until 18. At its most severe she was totally confined to bed and both profoundly noise and light sensitive. She was unable to attend school for 2 years. For the final 2 years of her schooling she gradually built up to attending 2 lessons a day. Since then she steadily recovered and is now a personal fitness instructor.

Chris developed CFS/ME herself following a visit to Uganda in April 2001. Her health steadily deteriorated until she was confined to bed. A slow pacing routine enabled her to begin venturing outside again. She had a sudden recovery in October 2002. In 2003 she was employed at Burrswood in a part time capacity.

Due to her personal experiences of being both a patient and a carer, Chris developed an interest in CFS/ME and the role of physiotherapy in its recovery. She read extensively and attended courses, and then produced training materials for the multidisciplinary team at Burrswood, who already had extensive experience in this condition.

Elizabeth Sanders

Accountant

Management Accountant for the Church Commissioners

Elizabeth has worked for the Church of England since 2004. She is a Management Accountant for the Church Commissioners and was previously Management Accountant & Financial Planner for The Church of England Pensions Board. Formerly, Elizabeth was employed by Equant N.V., a leading global telecommunications services provider, as an Accountant on the design team setting up a European Shared Service Centre in the UK. She was also a SUN Consultant implementing SUN accounts into Austria and Portugal. Elizabeth was the first Management Accountant to work at Macmillan Cancer Support where she stayed for 7 years. She is a Chartered Global Management Accountant, an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and has a diploma in Business Administration. She runs her own accounting practice.

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