The UKONS Board is made up of executive officers, members, co-opted members and prospective members.
The Board meet at face-to-face meetings four times a year and have regular telephone meetings throughout the year.
Each year the Board has at least one major work plan to deliver, as well as the UKONS annual conference to plan and organise with our Secretariat, Media1 Productions Ltd.
President
Dr Karen Campbell is a Macmillan Associate Professor in Cancer Nursing at Edinburgh Napier University. Karen has a long cancer nursing career in a variety of specialisms including haematology, genetic counselling and palliative care. Karen took two years out from academia to work within the Professional Development and Knowledge team within Macmillan Cancer Support responsible for the development of education to Macmillan professional, people affected by cancer and the wider workforce across the UK. Karen continues to lead on programmes of research involving the role out of Holistic Needs Assessment, delivered across health care settings. Currently, Karen is undertaking research projects in, the potential of a handling cytotoxic drugs, PROMS use in haematology care, Advance Care Planning in haematology patients and holistic needs assessment in personalised care. Karen’s clinical doctorate explored the experience of care in haematology cancer patients in the last year of their life.
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President-Elect
Mary is a Senior Teaching Fellow at the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care, King’s College London. She is also a member of the Communications Working Group of the European Oncology Nursing Society. Mary has been a registered nurse in the UK since 2000 including years at the Royal Marsden Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in various clinical cancer nursing and cancer research nursing roles. She completed Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of Santo Tomas, Manila and a specialist Cancer Nursing Diploma from the Royal Marsden School, London. Mary has a Master of Science in Nursing Research and Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Education obtained from King’s College London. She is also a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. Mary is committed to supporting student nurses and early career cancer nurses. An NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship awardee, Mary completed her PhD in 2023 also at King’s College London. Her research interests are supportive care in cancer, CIPN and co-design methodology. Mary has authored book chapters and published in peer-reviewed healthcare and nursing journals. She has been invited as expert speaker for topics relevant to cancer care and had presented in national, European, and international conferences. [Contact on Twitter: @MerryTea and Linked In: Mary Tanay]
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Past President
Mark Foulkes has been in post as Nurse Consultant and Macmillan Lead Cancer Nurse at the Royal Berkshire Foundation Trust since 2007.
He continued to work clinically on the Acute Oncology Team throughout the COVID-19 pandemic In 2016 received a ‘Pride of Reading’ Award for his work with cancer patients.
Mark has presented widely on a range of subjects, has edited two text books on oncology nursing and has a particular interest in nurse-led services, innovative approaches to cancer care delivery and the political backdrop to cancer services. In 2018 he was voted onto the board of the UK Oncology Nursing Society (UKONS) where he led for nurse education prior to becoming President Elect.
He is currently the President of UKONS and is a national Work-stream lead for the ACCEND programme as well as being one of the editors for ‘Breaking News’.
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Secretary
My name is Debbie Wightman, I have over 35 years nursing experience. 20 years have been working as an intensive care nurse caring for neonates, children and adults.
In 2012, I had the privilege to transfer to a management role and work with staff and patients within Oncology and Haematology. In this position, I was able to develop the service and lead the implementation of the Regional Information System for Oncology and Haematology, an electronic patient record and electronic prescribing system ensuring safe standardisation of care and treatment which is protocol driven and based upon regionally agreed clinical management guidelines.
In 2017, I became the Divisional Nurse for Cancer and Specialist Medicine and Lead Cancer Nurse for the Belfast H&SC Trust. This was a pivotal leadership position within the organisation. This strategic role enabled me to influence the nursing workforce within Northern Ireland, working in partnership with other nurse leaders throughout the region to develop a clear and valued career pathway for cancer nurses, investing in education which is evidence based, person centred, co- produced and designed for and with our patients.
In 2019, I was appointed as Co-Director for Cancer and Specialist Medicine, Belfast H&SC Trust. This role includes Oncology, Haematology and Specialist Palliative Medicine services. I remain passionate about raising the profile of cancer nursing within Northern Ireland, enabling us to work collaboratively to ensure we share best practice and knowledge and in doing so develop a skilled confident, competent workforce of nurses with the ability and passion to deliver high quality care, which is cutting edge, innovative, focusing on the needs of our patients whilst creating a close network of support.
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Treasurer
Lyndel is the lead cancer nurse for the Alliance providing cancer nursing leadership across our work programmes. She has many years of experience in senior operational management and nursing roles. As an Oncology Nurse Consultant she supported chemotherapy and acute oncology services and her research interest focusses on women’s experience of patient initiated follow up in breast cancer. She works with Trust lead cancer nurses, Clinical Advisory Groups (CAGs), and Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) to deliver the NHS Long Term Plan.
Lyndel is the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for the cancer workforce and patient involvement workstreams. All TVCA work programmes are co-designed with patients at the heart of all quality improvement work. She is also involved in Children’s & Teenage & Young Adult (TYA) Operational Delivery Networks (ODN), Psychological Care Services, and Treatment and Care work programmes.
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Board Member - SACT MIG Lead
Rosie has over 20 years’ experience working in oncology and currently works as a SACT specialist nurse at Velindre Cancer Centre, Cardiff, where her responsibilities include staff and patient education, policy development, and working as an independent nurse prescriber. She also has a role as Clinical Lead nurse for SACT and Acute Oncology with the Wales Cancer Network where her role includes working with teams across Wales to reduce duplication of effort and ensure high quality of patient care in both SACT and Acute oncology services. She has led the implementation of several Wales wide initiatives including the development of all Wales chemotherapy and immunotherapy alert cards and is currently leading on a review of 24 hour triage lines across Wales . Rosie is chair of the All-Wales SACT nurse forum and chair of the UKONS SACT members interest group. She also has an active role on a number of national workstreams including the CRUK National consent forms steering group, the National SACT protocols group and National Extravasation guidelines group. She completed her PhD studies in 2020 and is actively involved in promoting and undertaking nurse led research with a particular interest in improving the patient experience of SACT induced toxicities.
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Board Member - Acute Oncology MIG Lead
Naomi currently works as an Acute Oncology Nurse Consultant at Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in Barnstaple. Naomi has worked within a variety of ward and outpatient cancer care settings. She moved to North Devon in 2015 to help establish the Acute Oncology Service. This nurse led service now runs over 7 days and has been nationally recognised for its innovative nurse led approach. Naomi is an NMP, UKONS board member and link for the Acute Oncology MIG, UKAOS board member and is a Specialist Advisor for the CQC. Raising the profile of Acute Oncology is a real passion for Naomi, she is also particularly focused in the development of advanced practice within nursing roles recognising how they enhance the quality of the service provided.
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Board Member - Research MIG Lead and Partnership Lead
Jo Bird is a Nurse Consultant in Melanoma and Immunotherapy Late Effects at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield. She maintains a clinical academic career having completed an NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship. Prior to this Jo was a Clinical Research Nurse working in a variety of cancer sites and early phase trials so is keen to support nurses working in clinical research as well as those undertaking their own projects. Jo has chaired the Research MIG since 2019 and is also Consultant Editor for the British Journal of the Nursing Oncology supplement. Her research interests include the long-term effects of immunotherapy, survivorship and palliative care. As a member of the NCRI Early Career Forum Executive Group, Jo is also working to increase research opportunities for nurses. In her clinical role Jo conducts a nurse-led late effects service for patients who have received immunotherapy and is keen to support nurses to integrate research into cancer care.
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Board Member - UKONS Champions Lead & Co-chair of SACT MIG
I started at the Royal Marsden School in February 2019 as a lecturer practitioner. Before moving here I had spent the last three years as Head of SACT services in a large NHS Trust which had a tertiary cancer centre and two DGH sites.
Development and support of staff is always something I have been passionate about. I have also trained as a Schwartz facilitator. As part of UKONS board I am the deputy of the SACT MIG as this remains a key area of interest for me.
My oncology experience has been wide and varied in my 30+ years career and includes being a Sister of a general cancer ward and a chemotherapy day unit, Lead Nurse at a tertiary cancer centre, Cancer Network Nurse Director and 10 years as Head of Nursing Cancer and palliative care. I have also worked for a brief time as a clinical nurse specialist in the distance past.
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Board Member - Conference Lead
Nellie is an experienced cancer nurse with a specialist interest in melanoma. Currently Nellie works as a Nurse Consultant for melanoma at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in Kent, UK. A qualified advanced nurse practitioner, Nellie is passionate about supporting nurses to gain the skills, expertise and experience needed to provide expanded care for patients. Over a 20+ year career, she has worked in a variety of nursing roles from staff nurse to ward sister to clinical nurse specialist to advanced nurse practitioner. Nellie completed a Bachelor of Science in nursing studies at Middlesex University. She has a Master of Science in advanced nursing practice from London South Bank University. She also, has a diploma in cancer nursing from The Royal Marsden School of Cancer Nursing. She has completed research into patient initiated follow for stage 1 melanoma and the experiences of patients receiving immunotherapy for metastatic melanoma. Her achievements include co-editing The Fundamentals of Cancer Care for UKONS in 2021. She co-wrote chapters for The Fundamentals of Cancer Care.
Nellie is a member of BASCSN, NCRI ECR forum and TYAC. She is a board member with UKONS and is a committee member for The Global Power of Oncology Nursing (GPON) which celebrates and highlights the work of cancer nurses in low/middle income countries.
Nellie is an advocate for nursing leadership, patient/ public involvement, and advanced practice.
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Board Member - Education Lead
Ruth currently works as Clinical Service Manager for Circle Health Group, the largest independent sector provider of cancer care in the UK, focusing on cancer quality assurance inclusive of policy authoring and driving advancements in pathway design with personalised medicine and genetics.
She is a member of the UKONS Systemic Anti-Cancer Members (SACT) Interest Group, the UK SACT Practice Educator Network, and representative on the Independent Sector Cancer Network (ISCN)
Her professional achievements include completing her MSc in Advanced Cancer Practice in 2013, authoring chapters in the Marsden Manual, teaching SACT practice in Malta, developing numerous clinical competencies for NHS Trusts and Cancer Centres. More recent achievements were nomination to the 2019 Nursing Times awards having co-developed and implemented the UKONS SACT Passport, following collaboration with stakeholders and partners across the UK and contributing to the Independent Sector Cancer Standards.
Ruth has a particular interest in how collaboration can achieve sustainable outcomes in the health sector, she places value on clinical innovations that make both the lives of our patients safer/easier whilst liberating 'time to care for practitioners'. Ruth's true area of passion is the relationship between nurse education and the patient safety agenda. In 2021 Ruth was voted onto the UKONS board where she continues to advocate for members by supporting cancer nurse education developments and supporting HEEs ACCEND programme for registered to advanced practitioners .
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Board Member - LWBC MIG Lead
I managed a project around Living With and Beyond Cancer/Personalised Care for three years, developing support systems and building relationships across Primary and Secondary Care, community and the charitable/voluntary sector to ensure those affected by a cancer diagnosis have access to supportive care closer to home. I am currently Clinical/Operational Manager in Northumbria Palliative Care and continue to embed the principles of Personalised Care for all our patients.
As Board link for the LWBC MIG I am driving towards inclusion of supportive and palliative care, as well as working with the group to identify opportunities for research in these expanding specialities.
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Board Member - Young and Early Career Cancer Nurse Lead
Constance Rowell is currently Deputy Matron for Haemato-oncology at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. She undertook her undergraduate degree at King’s College London in 2013 and completed a MSc in Advanced Practice: Cancer Care at the Royal Marsden School in 2020. Her dissertation focused on a service evaluation of weekend referrals to a nurse-led acute oncology service. In the past she worked as an Acute Oncology Advanced Nurse Practitioner at the Royal Marsden, supporting the acutely unwell non-elective cancer patient pathway. She also worked as both an Acute Oncology and Breast Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialist at Frimley Health Foundation Trust and is a non-medical prescriber. She currently represents Young Cancer and Early Career Nurses as a Board member of the UK Oncology Nursing Society and is also an European Oncology Nursing Society Young Cancer Nurse Representative for the UK. She hopes that exposure to the work that other young cancer and early career nurses are undertaking and facilitating a network will lead to shared ideas to develop better care for oncology patients and inspire the next generation.
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Board Member - Haematology MIG Lead
Barry is a Senior Lecturer in Cancer and Palliative Care at the Queen’s University Belfast and spent much of his career in working in London in roles including, CNS, consultant/lead nurse, director of nursing, and senior lecturer. As a native of Northern Ireland he understands the regional challenges and opportunities and is keen to engage with nurses Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK to support the work of UKONS. He is the current chair of the UKONS Haemato-Oncology MIG.
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Board Member - Communications Co-Lead and Champions Board Link
Linda is Team Lead for the Colorectal Cancer Nursing Service in NHS Lothian, based within the Edinburgh Cancer Centre. She has over two decades of oncology nursing experience and has worked both clinically and within research roles. She recently completed her PhD, and is enthusiastic about widening the horizons and opportunities of the cancer nursing workforce, with a particular emphasis on a four-nation approach.
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Co-opted Board Member and Deputy Treasurer
Bethany Maynard works as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner in Haematology/Oncology at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. She qualified with a BSc in Adult Nursing from University of Surrey in 2013 and completed MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice in September 2022. She primarily works with Haematology inpatients, specifically lymphoma patients. Beth has been the UK Young Cancer Nurse representative with UKONS since 2018 and is a co-opted member of the UKONS board. She was also been Vice-Chair of the European Oncology Nursing Society Young Cancer Nurses Network since 2021. These are roles which aim to support and develop young and early career cancer nurses in the UK and across Europe.
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Co-opted Board Member - Radiotherapy MIG Lead and Communications Co-Lead
Jane Ewang is a Lead Radiotherapy Clinical Nurse Specialist at The Harley Street Clinic, London. She has worked in cancer care for over 10 years and is passionate about supporting patients throughout their cancer journey. She is an independent nurse prescriber and is working towards her MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice. Jane has been supporting UKONS as one of the Young and Early Career Cancer Nurses (YECCN) representatives since 2019, chairing and hosting several educational events to support the UKONS strategy. This led to her first publication in the Biritish Journal of Nursing and she now leads on the Radiotherapy members interest group as a co-opted board member.
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Co-opted Board Member
Christian Rowley is an Associate Director of Operations at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. Employed within the NHS since 2005 Christian previously worked at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust in Occupational Health, Smoking Cessation and IT, before moving to the Royal Marsden as Associate Director at the Royal Marsden School, later taking on a transformation role for Outpatients and Digital Development, then moving into operations management looking after Acute Inpatient Management.
Christian has an MBA in Leadership from Coventry University and recently completed the Nye Bevan Programme through the NHS Leadership Academy. Christian is passionate about developing the ability to deliver high quality patient care and education lies at the centre of that.
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