People | Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis

APF is a people-driven organisation, it is vital to us that our community is a safe space for all, regardless of background, sexuality, gender, disability, or race. We gain strength from the wide variety of backgrounds that people come with. We value your unique experience and want your voice to be heard.

Daniel Saxton

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Daniel joined APF in September 2024 as our Chief Executive Officer.

Abigail Miller

Communications Manager

Abi joined APF in November 2022, bringing with her 6 years of experience working in healthcare charity-related comms.

Alison Stewart

Scotland Support Coordinator

Alison joined us in 2021 and is looking forward to making a real difference to the lives of PF sufferers in Scotland.

Andy Bright

Corporate Partnerships Coordinator

Andy has personal experience of life as a PF patient, having developed pulmonary fibrosis in his 40s and, following a 10 year journey, eventually receiving a life-saving double lung transplant in 2018.

Bradley Price

Director of Policy & Public Affairs and Acting Director of Research

Bradley joined us in May 2023 to lead APF's work putting pulmonary fibrosis on the agenda of Parliament and the NHS. He brings experience in health policy, with a particular interest in medicines access and patient involvement.

Cathy Jackson-Read

Support Network Coordinator

Cathy joined APF in February 2024 from a West Midlands based charity which provides advocacy and health and wellbeing services to adults, children and young people.

Chloe Hough

Information and Education Manager

Chloe joined APF in November 2022 after working as a community physiotherapist in the NHS. She is responsible for planning and producing high-quality informative content for people affected by PF.

Chloe Stevenson

Support Services Administrator

Chloe joined APF in July 2022. Having worked within the education and charity sectors, she brings with her with a wide range of skills to her support services administration role.

Clare Hodkinson

Research Funding and Impact Manager

Clare joined APF in January 2021. Clare is a trained biomedical scientist and completed her PhD in 2006. Clare is an experienced research manager, a role which is well-informed by 12+ years as a researcher in clinical and academic settings.

Emily McIndoe

Information and Education Coordinator

Emily joined APF in September 2024 as our Information and Education Coordinator.

Emma Byrne

Digital and Challenge Fundraising Officer

Emma started in October 2019 and has spent many years working in financial administration.

Emma McElroy

Digital Marketing Coordinator

Emma joined APF as a Digital Marketing Coordinator in November 2023. She has a background in digital marketing, with experience in copywriting, SEO, and communications.

Emma Pelling

Freelance Media Relations

Emma joined APF in 2017 and has over 20 years’ experience bringing patient stories to the wider public via TV, radio and press.

Jo Dallas

Senior ILD Nurse

Jo joined APF as our Senior ILD Nurse in July 2024.

My journey started a long time back after spending long periods of time with my grandparents living with us as a family through their terminal years on with lung cancer and another heart failure, until then I was unsure of what career I wanted but my nan suggested I should be a nurse as I was kind and caring. I wanted to be a surgical nurse for a long time and qualified and moved into the fast pace of intensive care soon realising I wanted more interaction from my patients as sedated and ventilated tends to get you very little verbal response and whilst you support the families and friends a lot and help to cure them of their illnesses you lose so much connection with them as a patient. This often left me wondering how they really were as we are often not what our families portray us as.

So, with my wealth of experience, I moved to respiratory medicine miles away from where I expected my path to take me. I had the misfortune to become unwell with cancer which gave me a renewed outlook on my life, my career and how I respond to patients and their journey through their disease process, and soon realised the other side of the fence was a bad place to be and that I could try and make a difference, walking the mile in their shoes is a reality check…

I took a step back for a few years and worked between the acute trust as an ITU nurse and with a team supporting patients who have cardiac disease and found the awake and talking patients although more challenging, they were much better company and made me realise how insular I had become and how much I needed the human interaction as much as they did so I took the plunge and left the world of ITU.

I worked as a general respiratory nurse in the acute setting for many years, looking after patients with all different aspects of respiratory disease, but developed a keen interest in the world of ILD realising there was more to it than what I had learned over the 15 years.

Having survived the pandemic physically I felt the need to give more back as the world of fibrosing lung disease was going to change. I found an opening at Guys and St Thomas’ to help support the team and develop the nursing side of the team.

I joined the team with what little was left of a nursing service post COVID and developed it to what it is today; with the support of the team both nursing and medical. I have now developed a fully cohesive and inclusive ILD CNS service, seeing all type of ILD Patients and families supporting their needs with clinics, in various forms running simultaneously covering anything from general follow up reviews for infusion therapy, blood monitoring and prescriptions to our new ambulatory oxygen assessment service within our one stop shop. Whilst managing a support helpline for ILD Patients meeting national targets for IPF patients including wholistic support to PR, oxygen and palliative care.

I started developing a palliative care pathway with our palliative team, allowing our patients to have quick access to pharmaceutical treatments with follow ups to ensure effectiveness and hope this will promote and improve palliative support as a lot of these patients have a short life expectancy and we know they have lost anything up to half of this by the time they get to meet an ILD specialist. I am hoping the team I have left behind will continue this and one day lead to them applying for GOLD standard palliative status and an even greater ambition would be to support this becoming a country-wide initiative.

I worked closely with the APF charity as part of the patient pathway on many different projects over the last few years and instigated the attendance of the charity being ever present within the NHS chest clinic departments increasing support to patients where the NHS staff lack the time especially in those vital first few moments when given a diagnosis as we know how damaging internet searching can be to a patient’s physical and mental wellbeing if looking at incorrect information and APF were best placed to support this, also trying to connect more groups together with hybrid support groups in partnership with the local hospice to try and alleviate some of the myths and anxiety surrounding what hospices and their care entails.

I was relatively novice when I joined the ILD world a few years ago although a large amount of general respiratory experience, I have now learned a huge amount and so far, but feel the NHS is no longer the place to make change for me and that APF is somewhere I can make a difference. So, with that said I am passionate about PF and loving the journey so come along and join us for the ride and lets change the ILD world together, as united we are stronger.

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Jo Murch

Befriending and Volunteer Coordinator

Jo joined APF in March 2023. She has worked with volunteers in health charities for three years and prior to this was a primary school teacher!

Jonathan Dawson

Director of Finance and Operations

Jonathan joined us in March 2024.

Julia Stoward

Support Network Coordinator

Julia joined APF in March 2023. Prior to this she enjoyed a long career as a social worker for Kent Local Authority, where she specialised in supporting adults and children with a disability.

Julie Cleary

Finance and Payroll Officer

To say Julie has had a varied career is an understatement. She started out at age 17 by joining the Royal Air Force as an Aircraft Mechanic, working on Harriers, Pumas and Chinooks.

Katherine Wright

Individual Giving Team Leader

Katherine joined the fundraising team in March 2023.

Kirstie Atkins

Research Coordinator

Kirstie joined APF in January 2022, initially on the Fundraising Team, but moved across to the Research Team in February 2023.

Lisa Murray

Policy & Public Affairs Officer

Lisa joined APF in January 2024 to join the Policy and Public Affairs team. Her experience in the charity sector has focused on policy and advocacy work to address healthcare inequities and improve access to medicines.

Naomi Gay

Research Involvement Manager

Naomi has dedicated her career to utilising the expert voice of people living with conditions to shape the work of charities to better respond to their needs.

Natalie Martin

Senior Digital & Fundraising Manager

Natalie has a wealth of experience in the third sector, having worked in medical, homelessness and animal welfare non-profit organisations over the last 18 years.

Nicola Griffiths

Support Networks Manager

Nicola joined APF in February 2024.

Pauline Baird

Support Line Manager

Pauline joined us in 2021 as a freelance specialist nurse and more recently in a new post as the support line coordinator in 2022.

Rukhsana Kosar

Operations Administrator

Rukhsana joined us in January 2022. Her main role is working in the Finance department and managing all donations made to the Charity. Rukhsana enjoys being part of a team and supporting APF as a Charity.

Sally Birkin

Office Administrator

Sally joined us in September 2023 as Office Administrator. Sally brings a wealth of administration knowledge with her.

Sharon Moon

In Memory and Legacy Coordinator

Sharon started at APF in August 2018 and brings a diverse set of skills and experience to her Individual Giving support role.

Stef Cormack

Director of Services

Stef has worked in the charity sector for over 25 years and has extensive experience leading charities in the UK, particularly in health.

Tanya Airewele

HR & Operations Coordinator

With over 3 years experience working within the People Profession, Tanya has always worked in the corporate sector.

Wendy Adams

Director of Research

Wendy joined APF in September 2020. She is passionate about enabling people affected by PF to help shape research and support the discovery of new treatments, technology and understanding of PF.

Wendy Jones

Regional Support Coordinator (North)

Wendy joined APF in December 2021 having cared for her mum who had IPF until her death in May 2021.

Ola Kanu

Involvement Officer

Ola Kanu joined APF in October 2024

Rebecca Williams

Senior Partnerships & Philanthropy Manager

Rebecca Joined APF in September 2024.

Claire Mellis

Trust and Grants Coordinator

Claire joined APF in December 2024

Sharon Clinch

Befriending and Volunteering Coordinator (maternity cover)

Sharon joined us in November 2024. She has several years experience working in the charity sector and became a Befriender for APF when hearing about the charity on the TV, as her husband developed IPF a few years ago.

Dr Michael Stubbins

Chair

Mike’s career has focused on research and development of new medicines and the application of genetics and genomics to healthcare in his current role for Genomics England, while doing his PhD and whilst working 20+ years with GlaxoSmithKline.

Dr Beckie Lang

Trustee

Beckie is a public health specialist. She is an advocate of science communication and worked in this field in academic, corporate, media and voluntary sectors. Beckie is currently CEO of the Parent-Infant Foundation, a mental health charity.

Dr Helen Parfrey

Trustee

Dr Helen Parfrey is a consultant respiratory physician at Royal Papworth Hospital. She is actively involved in research on pulmonary fibrosis and undertakes clinical and translational research on the role of innate immunity and infection.

Matt Kemp

Trustee

Matt has worked in scientific research for most of his career, first in the lab and now as the CEO of a global company developing scientific research equipment.

Matthew Suddart

Trustee

Matthew works in the Public Sector and is passionate about raising awareness amongst policymakers and those who have the ability to lever change that will improve outcomes for pulmonary fibrosis patients.

Stephen Morgan-Hyland

Trustee

Stephen has over 20 years’ experience as a planning and property consultant and is a recognised expert in commercial development and regeneration.

Steve Jones

Trustee

Steve Jones worked for 35 years as an expert on social and economic problems of development in South Asia and Africa. He ran his own consultancy practice and worked for clients including the United Nations, the World Bank, the UK government and EU.

Dr Simon Hart

Trustee

Dr Simon Hart is Reader in Respiratory Medicine at Hull York Medical School and a consultant respiratory physician at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, where he is the lead clinician for the Interstitial Lung Disease Service.

Wendy Dickinson

Trustee

Wendy Dickinson is one of APF’s founding trustees. Her father, football manager Peter Taylor, died from IPF in 1990 at the age of sixty-two. She is working to improve the lives and outcomes for PF patients and their families in memory of her dad.

Professor Nick Wareham

Chair - Research Review Panel

Professor Nick Wareham is the Director of the MRC Epidemiology Unit, Co-Director of the Institute of Metabolic Science, Honorary Consultant at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, England.

Andrew Wilson

Research Review Panel Member

Andrew retired from his veterinary practice in 2005, and, while embarking on an MA in Pastoral and Theological Studies, started volunteering with refugee and asylum seeker charities.

Elizabeth Bray

Research Review Panel Member

Elizabeth’s late husband Mike was an IPF patient, who was fortunate to have a single lung transplant. Following his transplant, Elizabeth worked with Mike, the first Chair of Trustees of APF, and other founding trustees to set up the charity.

Dr Richard Allen

Research Review Panel Member

Richard is an Action for Pulmonary for Fibrosis Mike Bray research fellow at the University of Leicester, researching the genetics of pulmonary fibrosis using large-scale statistical analyses.

Suzanne Barrie

Research Review Panel Member

Suzanne lives in Scotland and currently works in the NHS as an Advanced Practice Vestibular Physiotherapist.

Susan Hall

Research Review Panel Member

My name is Susan Hall, I am a patient living with a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis called Idiopathic Pleuroparenchymal Fibroelastosis under the care of Royal Papworth Hospital.

Jeremy Dearling

Research Review Panel Member

Jeremy is a Norfolk ex-staff nurse, disabled for over 20 years after surviving septicaemia, multiple organ failure and disseminated intravascular coagulation. He has been involved in Patient and Public Involvement for over 10 years.

Professor Ling-Pei Ho

Research Review Panel Member

Prof Ling-Pei Ho is the Professor of Respiratory Immunology at University of Oxford and an NHS Consultant in Respiratory Medicine.

Melanie Felton

Research Review Panel Member

Melanie was diagnosed with IPF in 2013, later changed to ILD (LIP/NSIP Secondary Sjogrens). She is a member of local patient support groups including British Sjorgrens, Royal Osteoporosis and APF.

Professor Stefan Marciniak

Research Review Panel Member

Stefan Marciniak is Professor of Respiratory Science in the University of Cambridge.

Professor Ann Millar

Research Review Panel Member

Emeritus Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Bristol. Previously President of the British Thoracic Society and the British Association for Lung Research.

Professor Chris Scotton

Research Review Panel Member

Chris currently leads the Respiratory Medicine research group in the College of Medicine & Health at the University of Exeter.

Albert (Al) Hinde

Research Review Panel Member

Al was diagnosed with IPF in October 2020 at his local hospital. He is a member of the Tameside Pulmonary Fibrosis Support Group and until recently acted as the group's Research Champion.

Professor Gisli Jenkins

President

Professor Jenkins leads the Margaret Turner Warwick Centre for Fibrosing Lung Diseases at the National Heart and Lung Institute. His clinical and research focus is on interstitial lung disease, and pulmonary fibrosis in particular.