Bolton Hospice will always hold a very special place in my heart. My grandad was one of the first inpatients in August 1992, and I remember sitting in the beautiful gardens here as a young child spending his final days with him, my mum recounting what a special place ‘they’ had created for the people of Bolton. Some years later in 2006, devastatingly, this special place became my mums final place, and the care and love we were all shown as a family for the last 18 months of her life will never be forgotten. 

Getting married to Jonathan and qualifying as a doctor just a few weeks later in 2006, we moved back home from my uni stint in Newcastle upon Tyne to support my family. 

After a few hospital jobs in and around Bolton I was lucky enough to be placed full time at Bolton Hospice whilst undertaking my GP training in 2009 and went on to undertake evening and weekend on call work once qualified as a GP in 2012 onwards. 

I’m now senior GP partner at the Oaks family practice in Crompton Health centre and I also spend a large part of my week working to better the health services for all Bolton people as the Clinical Director for what was Bolton CCG (now NHS GM). Part of this role led me to undertake clinical system leadership of the Covid response for Bolton and as the Senior Responsible Officer for the Bolton Covid Vaccination programme, of which we had the highest rates in Europe at one point in May 2021! 

Jonathan and I have 3 children and I’m occasionally caught getting up at 4am to do a stint on BBC Breakfast as their regular GP, so all in all life is pretty busy. Never the less as a family we always have prioritised time for the hospice, from supporting the organised charity events to adorning our house each year with a 15 foot reindeer and up to 8000 Christmas lights to raise much needed funds. I’m hopeful that my passion for my hometown people and this wonderful place coupled with my experience of healthcare and improving services over the years will offer the hospice a great asset. I look forward to the journey!