Our people
Our executive team
Our executive team are the people that make sure Young Lives vs Cancer runs like a well-oiled machine. Each Director has an area of expertise and experience, and together they manage the day-to-day of the organisation. They report through the Chief Executive to the board of Trustees.
Rachel has worked in the not for profit sector for the past 15 years.
Following a role as Head of High Value fundraising at Diabetes UK, Rachel joined Samaritans in 2006 and was there eight years, the last five as Executive Director of Fundraising & Communications.
She was responsible for overseeing a 50% growth in income during that time by increasing income from individual givers, establishing a Major Donor team and securing multi-million pound project funding from corporates, government and Big Lottery.
Before moving into the charitable sector Rachel spent eight years working in sales and marketing for a high-tech multi-national.
Rachel is a governor at a local primary school and is a member of the Institute of Fundraising’s Policy Advisory Board.
Rachel formerly led our Income and Engagement teams, with roles including Director of Fundraising and Director of Income and Engagement.
Helen is Director of Young Lives vs Cancer’s Innovation Lab. Helen has worked within the specialism of children and young people’s cancer for 15 years, most recently as Executive Director of Services & Influencing at Young Lives vs Cancer. Prior to that she worked in both the private sector, as a consultant at Deloitte, and the public sector. Helen is a Fellow of the RSA and is passionate about the power of people to create positive social change.
Although she is a northerner at heart, Helen now lives in Hackney with her husband, two children and her dog Bobby. Helen is a trustee at Kids, a national charity providing support to disabled children and young people. She also volunteers with Bobby as a therapy dog duo for start-up charity Empathy Animals.
Leading our Finance, Technology, Trading and Property teams, Tony brings a wealth of multi-disciplinary expertise from a range of industries within both the corporate and SME sectors.
Dual qualified CIMA and Chartered Institute of Marketing, he was most recently CFO for Unique Homestays. Prior to that Tony was the UK Finance Director at Arjo Huntleigh and Head of Commercial Finance at Bupa Home Healthcare, working with both the NHS and Pharmaceutical industries.
Earlier in his career Tony held a number of high profile commercial and finance roles at EE, General Motors, Scottish & Newcastle and Unilever.
A sports lover, his real passion is rugby. Having coached mini rugby for many years, his playing days are now confined to chucking a ball around with his two teenage sons and following his beloved Exeter Chiefs and Scotland.
David started his career training to be a solicitor but decided the world of People Management and Development was what he really wanted to be part of. Post legal qualifications David studied for a Masters degree in Human Resources Management.
Starting his HR career at Harrods (Knightsbridge) where he worked in HR and Recruitment for several years, David made the move to the Charity sector in 2000, joining Shelter. At Shelter he held most of the roles there are in HR/People and upon becoming Director for People, successfully added Internal Communications & Engagement and Transformation & Change to the Directorate.
David led on several major change programmes at Shelter and delivered the People strategy to enable the realisation of several very different organisational strategies. These included large-scale, organisation-wide restructures, major changes to ways of working, internal brand engagement programmes, new performance management frameworks, developing and implementing new pay and reward strategies, and creating and delivering a major culture change programme.
David is a qualified Insights Discovery practitioner and passionate believer in the power of personal development. David is also a big advocate of colleague wellbeing – especially around creating psychologically safe workplaces which enables everyone to bring their real selves to the workplace.
Outside of work David is an avid walker/hiker, geo-politics enthusiast and sports fan.
Helen joined Young Lives vs Cancer in 2011. Helen has lead our policy and influencing work to achieve change for young cancer patients – notably working with NHS England to develop a Cancer Patient Experience Survey for children and the Young Patient Family Fund in Scotland, which has resulted in substantial financial support for families.
Helen also leads our Voice and Media teams and loves working alongside young cancer patients and their families and supporting them to tell their stories to influence change inside and outside the organisation.
Before joining Young Lives vs Cancer Helen worked for a disability charity and in policy positions in local government. Helen is also a Trustee for Changing Faces – a U.K. charity focused on providing support and promoting respect for everyone with a visible difference.
Helen recently moved to the south coast with her family and loves spending time outside, by the sea, with her two children who keep her very busy. She also loves to travel and explore new places.
Lynn joined the organisation in 2020 to lead the transformation of our social care service to deliver a consistent service model across the UK.
She is an experienced third sector leader known for her ability to bring people together across sectors for greater public benefit. In her previous role as CEO, she led the development of innovative adoption services, leading growth strategies for greater reach and impact through planned development, tendering, mergers scaling service provision. In both executive and non-executive roles, she has influenced the shape of legislation, policy and practice acting as a stakeholder adviser to government departments in both England and Wales. She was awarded an MBE in 2014 for her work with children and families.
She is co-author of Still Screaming, an informative text about birthparents who lose their children to adoption. She has many years of practice experience in children’s services, has worked in both the statutory and voluntary sector at a range of levels. She is a qualified social worker, and counsellor and an experienced trainer.
She is a strong advocate for people development and wellbeing at work.
Outside of work she enjoys being outside, particularly exploring the vastness of the Northumbrian coast- that is when she isn’t entertaining or travelling.
Leading our Digital, Data & Technology Teams, David brings a wealth of multi-disciplinary professional expertise from the public and private sectors and has held senior technology and transformation roles in Local Government and Higher Education. Most recently as Chief Information Officer of Goldsmith’s College, University of London.
David is passionate about people and their lived experiences, ensuring digital services are accessible and that technology has a positive impact on society. He is a qualified social worker and Co-Chair and Board Trustee of The Rathbone Society.
He is a season ticket holder at Crystal Palace Football Club, is married and has five children. Three of his children have now left home and been replaced by two dogs (Polly and Wilfred) and a cat (Benjamin). David describes his dogs as ‘two toddlers that never grow up’ , and they frequently attend online meetings with him.
Our Trustees
Our Trustees guide our work and are responsible for the direction of the organisation. They’re all volunteers and give their time for free to help families face everything cancer throws at them.
Sir David joined Young Lives vs Cancer from his most recent role as Chair of the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
Earlier in his career, Sir David was a GP for 36 years in Cambridgeshire and was later President and Chairman of Council of the Royal College of General Practitioners, President of the British Medical Association, and a vice-chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.
Farrah is a senior audit manager at Sayer Vincent, an award-winning firm of chartered accountants with a focus on charities and social enterprises. Farrah has worked in the charity sector for 15 years and as well as her experience at Sayer Vincent, she has worked in the finance team at the NSPCC.
Farrah is a qualified chartered accountant and has a Diploma in Charity Accounting.
Stephen is a Fundraising & Leadership Coach and consultant. He was most recently Executive Director at Action on Hearing Loss and Director of Fundraising at Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre’s in the UK.
From 2006 to 2010 was Development Director for Legacy Fundraising at the NSPCC. He joined the NSPCC in 1998 as Director of Community Appeals where he was responsible for Local volunteer and community fundraising, schools, and national events across the UK. In 1999 when the Full Stop appeal was launched Stephen managed the appeal in the regions, which raised £55 million.
Before joining the NSPCC, he was Head of Regional Fundraising at Unicef for three years and prior to that spent 12 years in a range of fundraising and management roles at Scope. He was previously chairman of Remember a Charity, a consortium of over 145 charities promoting gifts in wills. He is now Vice Chairman of the Institute of Fundraising.
Rachel is Honorary Nurse Advisor in children’s cancer care in the Leeds Children’s Hospital at the Leeds Hospitals NHS Trust. Prior to retirement in 2018 she spent almost 30 years working in paediatric oncology and haematology in the acute sector.
Whilst all Rachel’s clinical experience was gained in Leeds, she has always played an active role in the development of children’s cancer nursing, and children’s cancer services, at the national level.
Rachel is a past Chair of the Paediatric Oncology Nurses Forum of the Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom (RCN), and now represents the RCN on the national Clinical Reference Group for Children and Teenage Cancer. She was made a Fellow of the RCN in recognition of her contribution to children’s nursing.
Rachel is a member of the nursing group within the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP). She is a former Chair of the SIOP Paediatric Oncology in Developing Countries (PODC) Nursing Working Group. In that capacity she has advocated for and worked with nurses from low and middle income countries in looking to define base-line standards of care for nurse training and education.
Anna is a chartered accountant and has held a number of senior finance roles at Morrisons and Tesco. Prior to moving into more commercial roles within retail, she gained audit and corporate finance experience at Deloitte and Andersen. She is chair of governors at a local primary school.
As the parent of a child recently treated for cancer, Anna has direct experience of the critical role Young Lives vs Cancer plays in supporting children and young people both during and after treatment.
Dan leads the practical social change and innovation work with communities, public systems, and social enterprises at the Young Foundation. Dan has worked across the public, private and charitable sectors, and was previously a Director of Nesta’s Health Lab where he led the People Powered Results programme as social enterprise, focussed on developing new methods and approaches to systems change. Dan brings with him a passion for working with individuals, organisations and systems to release the power of people closest to issues.
Kevin is a founding partner of Sana Capital, which supports early-stage companies developing data led healthcare solutions. He is also the founder of Coleid, which helps organisations with innovation and growth in the UK and overseas. In addition, he is an advisory board member at Global Tech Advocates which develops tech communities around the world to make a positive difference to the sector and their economies.
Kevin was previously at KPMG, where he held several senior UK and global roles. He was the Chairman of KPMG in London, the Head of its Private Enterprise sub-brand in EMA and the Global Chair of its Emerging Giants Centre of Excellence
Sarah is Executive Director, Professional practice and external engagement with Social Work England, the regulator for the social work profession in England. Sarah qualified as a social worker from Trinity College Dublin in 1997. Since then, she has worked in a variety of national and international contexts, from frontline practice in Ireland, to working with street children and ex-child soldiers in Sierra Leone during the civil war, to managing services for children and families in the UK. Sarah has worked across statutory, voluntary and regulatory services. Before joining Social Work England Sarah spent six years in Scotland, where she was Deputy Director of Inspection with the Scottish social care regulator, and worked with a mental health charity. Sarah is also Vice Chair of the board of Who Cares? Scotland, a charity advocating for the care experienced community in Scotland.
Our Independent Committee Members
Our Independent Committee Members bring an impartial perspective, provide expert advice and contribute to the Trustee Board’s sub-committee decision-making processes (Audit and Risk, Governance and People, Finance, Impact Investment, and Safeguarding). They report to the respective committee Chair.
They’re all volunteers who give their time for free to ensure accountability, transparency, and alignment with the work and direction of the organisation.
Dr Greg Edwards is a General Practitioner with over 15 years’ experience in healthcare management and a specialist interest in digital health. He currently works as Chief Medical Officer for Doccla, an organisation that allows patients to be safely looked after in their own homes via remote monitoring technology.
Luke is a specialist cyber resilience expert for the Financial Conduct Authority, one of the UK’s financial regulators. He is responsible for supporting the FCA’s supervisory objectives relating to the cyber resilience of financial services firms. Before joining the FCA, Luke worked for PA Consulting where he led teams supporting a diverse range of organisations to better understand their cyber security risks and to transform their approach towards cyber resilience.
Richard is a procurement professional with experience in both the private and public sectors. He has worked within the NHS for most of the last twenty years in various organisations covering Acute, Mental Health, Community, and Ambulance providers. He is the Deputy Chief Officer of the Healthcare Supplies Association, a body that promotes the work of procurement and supply chain staff at all levels of healthcare.
Our honorary positions
Young Lives vs Cancer’s Honorary President role recognises those highly committed individuals who have made an exceptional and impactful contribution to the charity. We’re very grateful for the difference they have made.
Gordon joined the Appeals Committee of Sargent Cancer Care for Children in 1998, becoming a Trustee in 2000 and then Chairman in 2002.
He took a lead role in co-ordinating the successful merger of Sargent Cancer Care for Children and CLIC (Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood) in 2005 to become CLIC Sargent.
After the charities joined forces, Gordon continued as Joint Chairman of CLIC Sargent (now Young Lives vs Cancer) before standing down 12 months later, and was very honoured to be appointed Honorary President in 2014.
From 2007 Gordon then focused his attention on establishing World Child Cancer which supports children with cancer in the developing world and was Chairman for 6 years.
From 2006 to 2018 Gordon was a Governor and Deputy Chairman of the University of Hertfordshire.
In 2021 Gordon co-founded Helping Herts which is a charity that supports 12 Hertfordshire-based children’s & young people’s charities.
Gordon is also Chairman of the Mayfair Neighbourhood Forum.
Currently, Gordon is Chairman of the Chaldean Group, which was established to manage interests in Chaldean Estate (a Hertfordshire farming and agriculture contracting enterprise), Property Investment and Development along with a diverse investment portfolio. Gordon is also Chairman of Mayfair Neighbourhood Forum.
He was awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in June 2015.
He is married to Mary, lives in Hertfordshire and has a son, daughter and four grandchildren.
A group of highly committed individuals, our vice presidents have made an outstanding contribution to our work over many years. We’re extremely grateful to them for their long-term generosity and dedication, and continue to work together for young lives against cancer.
- Francesca and Andrea Brignone
- Lucy Butcher
- Sara and Massimo Carello
- Rachel Woodward Carrick
- Johnny and Laura Greenall
- Jake and Harriet Humphrey
- Jonathan and Nicola Plumtree
Johnny and Laura GreenallWhen our son Billy was diagnosed with cancer, we experienced personally how Young Lives vs Cancer makes a difference to so many people. We wanted to help make life more bearable for families who live so far away from the hospital, and after chairing a successful appeal, I was delighted when Billy's House opened next to Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham in 2009. We are so pleased that Billy's House continues to provide an escape, by giving families space to regroup and regain strength to get through their battle! We feel proud and privileged to be patrons of such an incredible charity. Thank you Young Lives vs Cancer.
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