Our governance

Sue was invited to join us as Vice President in 2022 with her appointment being confirmed at the Annual General Meeting on 6th October 2022. 

Sue Hayman is a Shadow Minister on Housing, Communities and Local Government and on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the House of Lords. She was Member of Parliament for Workington from 2015 to 2019, and served as Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2017 to 2019. 

A former Cumbria County councillor, Sue lives with her husband on a smallholding in rural West Cumbria. She has a deep understanding of the area and works closely with environmental bodies, charities and campaign groups. 

Sue enjoys theatre, singing in the Parliament Choir and walking her dog, Max on the fells.

Rob started with the charity as a Vice President on 2019 and was Chair of the Board from 2013. We are pleased to say Rob accepted the position of President in 2024 when Dr Brian Herd retired as President. 

Rob is a retired GP who initially practiced in Workington for 17 years, then became PCT Medical Director for Primary Care in Cumbria, returning to general practice in 2005.

He has extensive management and strategic planning experience and is a former member of a NICE guidelines working group, as well as being an appraiser and examiner. He lives in Workington with his wife Anne.

Following on from the role of Trustee for nine years, Joanne Bowe, became a Vice President for Hospice at Home West Cumbria in October 2023. Joanne is a retired HR professional and has over 35 years’ experience within the nuclear industry. Her particular skills and experience cover HR, Shared Business Services and People Management. Joanne lives in Cockermouth. 

Gary lives in Cleator Moor with his family and became a Vice President for Hospice at Home West Cumbria in April 2023. 

Affectionately known nationwide as ‘Marathon Man’, Gary completed a year long fundraising challenge, running 365 consecutive marathons throughout 2022. He raised £1.2million pounds, splitting the total between Hospice at Home West Cumbria and a national charity. 

Gary said: “It is a huge honour to be considered, never mind being given the title of Vice President of a charity that in West Cumbria, is massive to everybody. I have won lots of awards in the past and I don’t do what I do to gain awards, but it is probably one of the most prestigious things I have been offered. It really means something to you when people come up and say: ‘well done, the charity really helped my husband/ wife/ child’ whatever it might be. That’s what it means to them so the association with Hospice at Home West Cumbria is something that will live with me forever. I hope that I can continue to do the things that I do and signpost to the charity for many years to come.” 

Richard has been associated with the charity since its inception and is a major community fundraiser. We were delighted when stepping down from his position of Vice Chair, following his long involvement as part of our board, he accepted the invitation to become Honorary Vice President at our AGM in October 2018.

Richard was apprenticed and worked in the motor trade in Northern England then owned and ran the filling station and garage at St Bees until his retirement in 2008. Richard lives with his wife in St Bees. 

He has made a personal commitment that each day he will speak to one new person about Hospice at Home West Cumbria.

Mary has been part of Hospice at Home West Cumbria since being invited to join us as legal adviser at the very beginning of our story. During her long career as a solicitor, based in Whitehaven, she gave us her professional expertise and support, becoming a Trustee in 1996 when she retired. In 2012 Mary became a vice president and remains a really committed supporter. Here she tells her own story of how Hospice came to mean so much to her.

"In 1975, my husband John and I experienced personally the need for home nursing care in the community for patients with terminal illnesses wishing to be nursed at home. At that time, John’s Mother was dying from terminal cancer (in her own home) and as we were both working full-time and also had other family commitments, we were finding it difficult. No nursing help was available locally but at the very end, we were able to employ the help of an SEN from a Liverpool agency. We were fortunate to afford such care and were very aware of the many families who could not!

Over the years that followed, I discovered clients and friends trying to cope with the same problems so in early 1987, when I was invited to become legal adviser to the group forming what was to become Hospice At Home, I leapt at the chance. When I met Brian Herd, Margaret Dowling and the group in 1987, I was intrigued and inspired by their vision. That was just the beginning."

Originally an engineer in industry, Barbara moved to Workington to run the West Cumbria Development Agency. When she was made redundant, she continued to live in Workington, while commuting to London weekly for 16 years until she retired. On retirement, she started volunteering for Hospice at Home West Cumbria and fulfils a number of roles including a receptionist in the Therapy & Information Centre, selling donated items on eBay and as a Trustee. Throughout her career, Barbara has held trustee and non-executive director posts in a range of organisations and has particular experience on finance committees and governance. 

Brendon has transitioned from a career in banking throughout the UK to undertaking contract roles in financial services specialising in managing Conduct and Operational Risk and Financial Crime. Away from work, Brendon has been involved in a number of voluntary activities over the years. He was one of the youngest Hospice Movement treasurers at the age of 26 at Rossendale Hospice and he was Treasurer of BASICS (British Association for Immediate Care), in Allerdale. Brendon has been a Chairman of the Cockermouth Round Table and 41 Club and he remains a member of the 41 Club. He is also a past Governor of St Joseph’s Primary School and Cockermouth School.

Paul has lived in West Cumbria since 2002, having moved initially to take up a career in the nuclear industry. A Director within the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s group of companies, Paul brings experience of programme management and organisational development. Paul has long admired the work of Hospice at Home West Cumbria and has been a regular fundraiser for us. He took the opportunity to join the board of Trustees to help develop and grow the vital services it delivers across the community. Paul lives in Whitehaven with his wife and three daughters.

Lee is a management consultant who works with a portfolio of start-up, SME, and corporate clients. He specializes in customer engagement, business development and business improvement and has recently taken up an executive role with an employee wellbeing start-up. He has a BSc (Hons) in Pharmacology and Physiology, an MBA and in 2013 completed his Doctorate in Business Administration at Alliance Manchester Business School, publishing the UK’s first empirical research on Business Mental Toughness. He joined the charity to help make a difference to the local West Cumbria community where he lives with his wife Zoe and two daughters, Tia and Nyah. In his spare time he is a keen footballer and cyclist.

Dominic is a qualified accountant and a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, working in the private sector for many years. 

Dominic moved to Cumbria in 2002 from the North East to be nearer family and has stayed ever since. Dominic has been a Chairman of the Cockermouth Round Table and 41 Club and he remains a member of the 41 Club. He is also a past Governor of St Joseph’s Primary School. 

Dominic is a keen cyclist and enjoys fell walking especially on a cool clear day. 

Dominic sits on the Finance & Income Generation Committee.

Fiona is a Registered Nurse with a District Nursing background. She was instrumental in setting up Hospice at Home, Carlisle and North Lakeland as a pilot project in January 1995 and worked with the organisation until her retirement as CEO in October 2022. Fiona has experience in all aspects of running an organisation with the same ethos as Hospice at Home West Cumbria and holds a Master’s in Hospice Leadership. Fiona is married with two sons who run the family farm. Hobbies include cooking, gardening, sunny holidays and helping on the newly established campsite on the farm. Fiona sits on the Clinical Governance Committee.

With approximately 14 years commercial experience and a further 14 in business and programme management roles across the UK nuclear industry, Kathryn has a broad and diverse experience of challenging roles. Kathryn brings a strategic focus, alternative perspectives and a questioning attitude. 

Kathryn is currently the Head of Enterprise Strategy for Sellafield Ltd. Previous to that, she was the Head of Risk for Sellafield Ltd and then the NDA. In addition, Kathryn undertakes a role on the emergency duty team and leads as Chief of Staff for the development and delivery of crisis management capability. Kathryn received a British Empire Medal for her leadership of crisis management during Covid. 

As a qualified business and risk professional, Kathryn is the former chair of the Institute of Risk Management nuclear special interest group and a review team leader for the Infrastructure Projects Authority. 

Kathryn sits on the Finance & Income Generation Committee. 

Kerry has a BA (Hons) in International Business Studies with German and has worked in financial services for over 20 years across a variety of roles. She is an experienced people leader who is passionate about learning, supporting others with their development, collaboration and the continuous improvement of services for end users. Prior to joining the Board, she was a School Governor for 9 years. She lives in West Cumbria and was motivated to join the Board after learning about the vital work the Hospice does to benefit the community where she lives. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with family/friends and travelling. Kerry sits on the HR and Governance Committee. 

Rick Tranter has been a GP in Whitehaven for over 30 years, working alongside Hospice at Home West Cumbria to deliver care to those in need. He has worked within a partnership of other doctors, which has allowed him to develop clinical services for the people of Copeland and north Cumbria and given him an understanding of how to manage a successful organisation. He has been involved in medical education throughout this time, running the local GP Training Programme for nearly 20 years, training many of the GPs who now work locally, as well as for the last 5 years working for the University of Central Lancashire, organising training for undergraduate medical students in the area. He lives in Cockermouth with his wife and twin girls and is lucky to have had another set of older twin girls and a son who now live away. Rick sits on the Clinical Governance Committee. 

Andrew sits on the Clinical Governance Committee. 

Hayley joined Hospice at Home West Cumbria in January 2018 and leads the Marketing and Income Generation Team who are responsible for raising our profile and raising the funds required to ensure Hospice at Home West Cumbria can develop and continue to deliver our services. Hayley also leads the Finance Team who provide a comprehensive and supportive finance and administrative service both internally and externally to ensure that the financial management of the charity meets all statutory requirements. 

After graduating from Leeds Metropolitan University with a BA(Hons) in Public Relations, Hayley went on to teach English in Japan. This inspired her to work with young people and worked for a number of years developing young people’s projects which included full project management from initial ideas, building realistic budgets, securing funding and reporting back evidence-based results. 

Working for a housing association, Hayley continued her project management role and then went on to manage their young people’s homelessness services and general needs housing which included tender submissions, management of statutory contracts, and achieving top scores of an accreditation process. Throughout her career, Hayley has built a track record of delivering income and expenditure budgets on target and developing effective internal and external partnerships. 

In her spare time Hayley enjoys live music, taking off in her campervan and long walks with her dogs. 

Julie is responsible for the overall management of Hospice at Home West Cumbria and its performance in terms of service provision, financial and corporate viability. This includes ensuring that the hospice meets all its statutory and service obligations. She is responsible for all day-to-day management decisions and for implementing the hospices long and short term plans. 

Julie has a background in public and charity sectors including public health, housing and environmental health. She has spent the last 20 years of her career in Cumbria, including a role as Deputy Chief Executive at Impact Housing Association. She has experience of regulation, governance, performance and innovation. Julie has a real commitment to developing services and people and a strong range of project management skills to achieve high performing, customer driven activities. 

Julie has a Master of Law degree and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health and Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. In her spare time she enjoys cooking, travelling and fitness.

Lorraine’s role at Hospice at Home West Cumbria is to provide strong clinical leadership and management for all clinical services, ensuring that the care received is equitable, professional and of an excellent standard. The role significantly contributes to the overall senior leadership of the organisation and being an active ambassador for the charity. 

Lorraine joined Hospice at Home West Cumbria in 2015, following a 30 year nursing career with the NHS. Her nursing journey has taken her along a varied and rewarding career path and included caring and supporting patients and families in the areas of acute medicine, palliative and coronary care, rheumatology, continuing health care, community liaison, rehabilitation and specialist palliative care.