I’ve been a Learning Disability Nurse for nearly 25 years, with experience of working in NHS Long stay residential care, short term care, children’s residential, and 12 years in an integrated Community Learning Disability Team.

I have special interests in Autism and End of Life Care (EoLC), and for the last 2 years I have been working in Palliative Care.

I spent 14 months working at St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Eastbourne on a project looking at Widening Access to good EoLC for people with Learning Disabilities; and have recently made the move to full time palliative care as part of career diversification!

I have recently taken on a new job role within Greenwich and Bexley Hospice as Clinical Nurse Specialist Team Leader for the Bexley Locality Community Team.

I am Chair of a small national charity called the PCPLD Network – www.pcpld.org.uk  – which supports and promotes best practice in end of life care for people with Learning Disabilities, and am currently part of a local project working with the children’s Hospice Demelza on transition from children Hospice to Adult.

I have presented a number of posters in relation to Palliative and EoLC for people with Learning Disabilities, at conferences in Berlin, London, Liverpool and Glasgow.

I am co-author on a 2021 published project on understanding meaningful involvement in bereavement for people with intellectual disabilities (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jar.12929).

I am passionate about working with people with Learning Disabilities and those people who are also autistic, and who also have a life limiting condition – knowing that we need to make appropriate reasonable adjustments in order to provide excellent end of life care.