Meet the team

Felicia Cox (chair)

Fiona Duncan

My background is in intensive care and hospice nursing in the UK and abroad. I have been a Nurse Specialist in acute pain at Blackpool since 1994, and recently a research fellow in Manchester. I also worked with NICE in London every month, in a hospice in South Africa and then in Preston in 1980's.

Helen Taylor

I have 17 years experience of working in pain management including developing and co-ordinating an acute pain service, working in chronic pain department and taking the lead in developing and running a pain management program.

This experience has been gained in the NHS, Australia, Guernsey, Canada. I have been working for an independant providor of a Primary care chronic pain service to the NHS in Nottingham for the last 3 years. I am also a honary tutor with the University of Wales.

I would like the forum to take the lead in informing and driving the development of local and national standards for pain management that provide equity of best evidence based care.

I believe that I have a great deal of experience and knowledge to offer on pain management including standards of care, staff & patient education & information.

I also have the enthusiasm and motiivation to become and remain actively involved in the forum. I would welcome the opportunity to develop personaly and professionaly and to access other people's experience and knowledge.

Mary Young

I have been working in specialist palliative care since 1994, in hospice and acute care settings. This has been in different roles - Team Leader, Ward Manager and Clinical Nurse Specialist - therefore my experience, knowledge and skills are varied and have developed over this time.

The Forum I believe needs to be proactive in enabling palliative care to be available to all client groups across all settings, to avoid the apparent ongoing 'postcode lottery' of this service. This may be achieved by ongoing work with charitable and voluntary organisations to continue recruiting appropriate staff, finding new ways of working to fill gaps in the systems, using existing research to promote the need for CNS posts, and working with the government to protect such services.

I believe that I can contribute enthusiasm,some level of knowledge and a willingness to participate in further projects to develop the forum and hence improved palliative care for users. This would also provide an opportunity for me to meet and work with colleagues and develop new skills. I have used the RCN for previous courses, for ongoing study days and the resource library.

Olwen Minford

Olwen’s experience has been working in the area of palliative and end of life care since 1997 in various capacities as a Nurse, Trainer and Counsellor/Psychotherapist. This has given her a strong foundation of skills and knowledge in relation to palliative care patients and their carers and their physical, emotional, spiritual, and social needs. Since 2007 she has worked as an end of life care facilitator within care homes and in the community of North and East London. These roles have given Olwen the opportunity to work strategically and to implement national end of life care tools e.g. Gold Standard Frameworks, Liverpool Care Pathway and Advance Care Planning.

Olwen is committed to the aims of the government's end of life care strategy(2008) and would wish to increase choice for all through improving communication and advance care planning, ensuring that people achieve their prefered place of care and die at home if they wish. Care after death requires a special focus and in the next four years, as an experienced bereavement counsellor, she would like the forum to raise awareness of how to deal with bereaved children .

Olwen contributes extensive experience as a nurse, trainer and psychotherapist from a broad range of settings and countries (UK, Australia, Israel, Hong Kong, South Africa) and a practical common sense approach mixed with passion and determination to improve services for those nearing the end of their lives. She wishes to develop and improve the standards of generalist end of life care in all settings and help people live well until they die.

Lucy Carlisle

I have been a Macmillan Community Nurse Specialist since 2005, having worked in oncology, palliative care, hospice care, district nursing, medicine and surgical nursing and gaining experience in Australia in private and public nursing since I qualified in 1992.

I have recently completed studying for my BSC in Palliative Care nursing over the last five years, graduating in July 2011. My aim is to contribute my knowledge and experience within the forum and beyond to government and other agencies and to ensure that palliative care continues to be high on the health agenda representing from members and their views.