I completed my PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry. For my doctoral thesis I investigated the psychological impact of motor neurone disease on patients and their spouse carers.

I have been responsible for the development and evaluation of interventions to promote awareness and early presentation in cancer. I have also developed instruments to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions in changing behaviour and modifying determinants of behaviour. I have collaborated on the development of an instrument to measure awareness and beliefs about cancer for use in an international population-based survey.

I have worked in health services research for over 12 years, managing single and multi-centre studies on a variety of scales. I have been involved in the design and selection of interview schedules and psychological measures to elicit patients’ experience of health care within a variety of contexts including cancer, motor neurone disease, dementia and addictive behaviour. I have extensive experience interviewing with patients, carers and health care professionals as part of projects aimed at policy formation and improving health care provision.

I have established research links on a local and national level. I have been an invited speaker at international meetings, presented at international level and received an award for best first-time presentation in 2005 from the British Psychosocial Oncology Society. I am a member of an international advisory group to a pan-European study of breast cancer treatment adherence and a national advisory group to a study of lesbian and bisexual women’s experience of breast cancer. I am a registered Chartered Psychologist.