Meet the Trustees
Professor Bhaskar Dasgupta MBBS, MD, FRCP — Honorary President (Consultant Rheumatologist & Clinical Director for Research and Audit) |
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Prof Bhaskar Dasgupta is Consultant Rheumatologist and Clinical Director for Research and Audit at Southend Hospital. He is also Honorary Professor in Health and Human Sciences at the University of Essex. An international expert in PMR and GCA, Prof Dasgupta leads the Southend Rheumatology Department which offers specialist services for complex inflammatory arthritides. Prof Dasgupta has convened the BSR Special Interest Group on Polymyalgia Rheumatica/Giant Cell Arteritis; investigated an R&D Grant for a multi-centre study of outcomes in Polymyalgia Rheumatica; regularly moderates the ACR Study Group on Polymyalgia Rheumatica and Giant Cell Arteritis at the ACR; was BSR convenor of multi-disciplinary national group that has developed guidelines on the management of PMR and GCA; and is lead researcher in the international ACR and EULAR sponsored project to develop Classification Criteria for the Polymyalgic Syndrome. |
Dr Kate Gilbert — Trustee/Director and Chair |
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Born in 1951 in Birmingham, Kate was the first person in her family to go to University. Proud to be called Doctor but not qualified to take out anyone´s appendix – she has a PhD in management! Kate has been happily married for 37 years, with two children and two grandchildren. PMR came her way four years ago and it was a shock, as prior to that she had been fit and athletic. It hit her like a ton of bricks and she was amazed at how little seemed to be known about it. Thanks to the internet Kate made contact with other women with PMR and GCA and they have stayed in contact ever since, encouraging each other to form support groups and contribute to the work to form a national organisation. |
Wendy Morrison — Trustee/Director |
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Wendy´s employment background has been in financial services; insurance, banking and investments. She has used these skills working for companies dealing with both their finances and day to day management. Wendy was very fit until March 2006 when PMR hit. A year later she met others with the condition which eventually resulted in the set up of the national charity. Wendy is also Chair of the South West Support Group. |
Dr Frances Borg — Trustee/Director |
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Frances is a new Consultant Rheumatologist at Southend Hospital, which is where she developed her interest in PMR and GCA. More importantly, she learned that actually the doctors don´t know as much about these conditions as they generally think they do! Frances believes that one of the biggest problems with PMR and GCA is lack of information about and recognition of these conditions on many levels. In her PMR and GCA related work, she does a weekly NHS specialist clinic and is actively involved in PMR and GCA related work, producing publications and presentations on both GCA and PMR in international medical journals and conferences. Frances has helped draft the British Society of Rheumatology guidelines to advise doctors how to approach and treat PMR and GCA, and has worked together with PMR-GCA UK to write a patient information booklet for patients with GCA. |
Jennifer Nott — Trustee/Director |
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Jennifer´s childhood was in Yorkshire and then Lancashire, where she completed her education before going to London to train as a teacher. She taught for a number of years in primary and special schools, and lectured in Higher Education. Jennifer worked for the ILEA as an advisory teacher for visually impaired children, visiting homes and schools in S.E London. She ran the service for visually impaired children in Bromley, which involved pre-school family support, continuing on through the children´s mainstream schooling. Jennifer has undertaken several professional counselling courses which have proved invaluable in offering support to people experiencing PMR and GCA who contact her Support Service. The setting up of a national organisation for PMR and GCA has been a prime aim and a wish fulfilled for her. |
Janet Luke — Trustee/Director |
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Janet is a pharmacist and has worked for many years in hospital and community pharmacies, currently based in her local village pharmacy. She studied at Manchester University qualifying as a pharmacist in 1964, and spent several years working in hospitals in Manchester, Cumbria, London and Maidstone in Kent. Janet´s interest in PMR developed in recent years with the growing number of friends and customers who were afflicted with this illness. Pharmacists, like other medical professionals are required to continually update their knowledge and expertise and Janet found researching PMR a very useful further education tool. Janet has specialist expertise on pharmaceutical matters, appropriate use of drugs, their effectiveness, side effects, cautions, and knowledge of the regulation and manufacture of drugs in the UK. |
Jo Cumming — Trustee/Director |
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Jo was employed as Manager of a British Telecom legal department and later as lead trainer until 1990. During the 1970s she was a volunteer and professional worker in various Helplines and support group settings and from the early 1980s was one of a small group of volunteers who set up a telephone support service to people affected by HIV and AIDS. In 1990 Jo moved to Yorkshire to work as project leader in a voluntary HIV agency. Taking a year out in 1997, she became volunteer/training consultant in Israel assisting the development of the National Taskforce to Fight AIDS. In 1998 she became a freelance counsellor and trainer. Joining the Arthritis Care Helplines in 2002 Jo has steered the service and team through the Telephone Helplines Association Quality Standard accreditation. |
| Dorothy Byrne — Trustee/Director | |
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Dorothy Byrne is Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel Four Television. She was previously the Commissioning Editor for Dispatches. Prior to that, she was Editor of The Big Story at ITV which was made by Twenty Twenty Television, having been a producer/director on World In Action for several years. She was also the executive producer of several prestigious history series, alongside her journalistic television work, before she joined Channel Four. Her programmes have won many national and international awards, including several RTS, BAFTA and Emmy awards, and she has received several personal awards including The Women in Film and Television award for Best Woman in Factual Television. Dorothy was made a Fellow of The Royal Television Society in 2009 for her “outstanding contribution to television journalism” and is Visiting Professor of Journalism at Lincoln University. She is single with a daughter aged fourteen. |
| Colin Pease — Trustee/Director | |
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Colin trained as a doctor at The Royal London Hospital. It was during his training at The London that he first became interested in Rheumatology. He got an ‘arc’ fellowship to work at ‘The Bone and Joint ‘research unit. Following this Colin did his Rheumatology training on the Charing Cross and Westminster senior registrar rotation. In 1989 he was appointed Consultant Rheumatologist and General Physician to Leeds General Infirmary. Colin soon became interested in the overlap between Late Onset Rheumatoid Arthritis and Polymyalgia Rheumatica writing several papers on these disorders. His interest in this field has continued with several recent papers on Polymyalgia Rheumatica and Temporal Arteritis. He has collaborated with several people interested in this such as Bhaskar Dasgupta, John Kirwan, Sarah Mackie, Ann Morgan and Dennis McGonagle. |
| Lady Wendy Levene — Trustee/Director | |
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It was the early seventies when Lady Wendy Levene set up her own business in interior design and although it was developing successfully, she decided to devote her time to her growing family. She has always been very involved in his husband’s business career, accompanying him overseas and having a very active participation in numerous functions in the UK. She is a tireless voluntary charity worker and a passionate fundraiser. She has been a trustee at Chatham Historic Dockyard, a founding trustee of the Museum in Docklands (1996-2001). Currently, she is a trustee at the Jewish Museum London raising several million pounds for its extension, and she has recently become a member of the Trust Working Group of the National Theatre (January 2012). Lady Wendy has both conditions for the past three years. She has three children and ten grandchildren. |