3 April 2019
UKONS are very pleased and proud to formally announce that Dr Verna Lavender has been elected as the ‘President Elect’ for our organisation. This is an important role, which is vital in the transition from one president to the next. Verna will take up the President role in November 2019 following the completion of Helen Roe’s period in office. Dr Lavender was recently appointed as Head of Cancer Academy, at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in Central London, and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at the School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences, King’s College London. She is a nurse, cancer nurse researcher and scientist. Since qualifying as a nurse in 1987 she has worked in both acute and primary care practice, cancer care education and training, service improvement and has extensive research experience both in fundamental science and nursing. She is a past winner of the RCNi Excellence in Cancer Research Award (2016). Her current research interests are in nursing people receiving systemic anti-cancer treatments, models of nursing care, and patients receiving anti-cancer treatments as part of clinical trials. She has been a UKONS board member since November 2016 and has acted as UKONS treasurer since November 2017.