Neil Thompson
Berwick 
Neil has seen first-hand the challenges faced by the NHS; great care and staff, but a service facing severe problems. Everybody relys on the NHS so it is important the Trust is in the best possible shape for everyone - the NHS is owned by us so we should take responsibility for how it is run and being a public governor is Neil's way of putting something back.
Living in North Northumberland Neil is passionate about services being provided closer to home. He is keen to ensure patients are listened to, there is joined up thinking between different parts of the NHS and technology is used to support staff to do their work - patient care not paperwork.
Neil is Deputy Chair of Northumberland Citizens Advice and a Trustee of a mental health charity supporting Military personnel. He has had a career in public service and in his spare time likes to explore the North East, garden, grow vegetables and is learning to keep bees.
Robert Dixon
Berwick 
Born in north Northumberland, Robert returned to live in the area during 2018. Educated in Northumberland before a career in healthcare and medical tech/ device sectors - starting out in mental health nursing before working in the medtech industry ending up an executive director of an international company responsible for their European market region and for global product and process development. Subsequently, he has held advisory/NED positions in early stage med/tech enterprises and in both the public (NHS Foundation Trust - mental and community health services) and charity (support and advocacy services to people living with specific medical conditions) related sectors. Now ‘retired’, he retains a broad interest in healthcare related matters.
Paul Jackson
Berwick
Paul is a retired academic, resident of Berwick, and a trustee of Berwick and District Cancer Cars.
He is extremely interested in the medical provision in the town and wider area. Paul has a great deal of experience of committee work, public engagement, representation, and public speaking and wants to be involved in shaping the future of the NHS in the North East. In his last role Paul was an elected staff governor representing his colleagues to the public governors and university management. He is keen to bring his skills to represent the views of local people and to ensure that the right questions get asked of the management and executive of this large, complex, and widespread Foundation Trust.
Callum Brown
Berwick 
Callum has worked in patient safety and quality improvement within the NHS and has seen first-hand how vital it is that healthcare organisations are led with integrity, ambition, and a deep commitment to the people they serve. Callum is keen to ensure that outstanding, compassionate care remains at the heart of everything the Trust does and is passionate about driving positive change, representing all voices, and supporting Northumbria Healthcare’s future.
June Watson
Berwick 
June has recently completed a Doctorate at Northumbria University and is keen to use her academic training for the benefit of the NHS community.
June has previously held volunteering roles including ten years as a parish councillor and as secretary of a local branch of a national armed forces charity.
Peter Dawson
Berwick 
Born and worked in Rothbury as a builder until he retired in 2011, Peter has served as a local parish and district councillor for 42 years and has always been involved in local affairs and local history.
He was part of a campaign group for the provision of Rothbury community hospital which finally opened in 2006, replacing the Coquetdale cottage hospital which had served this community for over 70 years.
He was also a member of a steering group for the introduction of the Ambulance Paramedic service and Doctors out of hours provision as well as a supporter of the Great north air ambulance since its introduction in 1991.
Peter welcomes the opportunity to represent his local community as a public governor.
Pamela Hood
Whitley Bay
Pamela trained in the mid sixties to be a nurse at Preston and Tynemouth Hospitals. Since then her interest in local hospitals and public health, especially the elderly, has continued.
Pamela also trained as a secretary and continued throughout her career to deal with the public in one aspect or another.
She has now retired and is busier than ever – enjoying spending time with her grandchildren and her role as public governor.
Heather Carr
Whitley Bay 
Heather worked as a secretary in education and healthcare and has worked on initiatives including ‘Living with Stroke’. She is also involved in local charity work and the church.
Heathers main area of interest is ensuring the quality of information given to patients and service users is of a good standard.
John Ostle
Blyth Valley
John has lived in Blyth all his married life.
Before he retired in 2013 John was a quantity surveyor working on many projects including three large hospitals. He was also operational manager for the company responsible for the build and maintenance of Hexham hospital giving him some good insight into how hospitals function. John has a wealth of knowledge gained both in and out of the NHS that he feels he would like to use to contribute into the local health service.
Elizabeth Renney
Blyth Valley 
Elizabeth's strong belief in the NHS and its ability to deliver the services it provides to the people of the North East means that she wants to help navigate change for the benefit of everyone - patients and staff. She was employed in local government for over twenty years, working with the community and local officials listening and understanding people’s differing points of view.
Having used NHS services and experienced first hand good practice Elizabeth is keen, in these challenging financial times, to ensure the NHS survives and continues to serve the people that need it.
Bob Watson
Blyth Valley 
Bob has lived and worked in Blyth Valley for the past 42 years with his wife and now grown up family. Similar to others he has used the excellent local NHS services over the years which piqued his interest in gaining an insight into the successes and challenges of the organisation.
Bob started his career working in Northumbria Police covering a large area of the north in many roles and ranks before retiring in 1999. He has also served as a school governor, cabinet member on Blyth Valley Council and Director of the CAB. He has also been self-employed representing pensioners in Medical Pension Appeals and subsequently as Director on the Board.
Sean Fahey
Blyth Valley 
Sean has lived in Blyth since 1975. He is married with 4 children and 8 grandchildren. Retired from the civil service after nearly 40 years, he has served as a parent school governor, NHS Foundation Trust public governor, company secretary of a law centre, a trustee with a Ugandan NGO (helping prevent child fire fatalities in schools) and is currently the secretary of a pensioners registered charity. Hobbies include exploring Northumberland, new technology, reading and gardening.
Allan Hepple
Blyth Valley 
John Percy
Blyth Valley 
John is a fire fighter living in Cramlington and is keen to bring his knowledge and passion of public service to the governor role.
Ian McKee
Wallsend
Ian has been a public governor since 2006 when the trust was authorised as a Foundation Trust. He has lived in Wallsend and worked across North Tyneside for 35 years dealing with a wide range of health and social care issues mainly concerning the welfare of disabled and elderly people. His work for the last 25 years has been within the voluntary sector following a long period of teaching and research within a local University.
Ian has taken an active part in the support and implementation of many improvements to services all of which have enhanced both patient experience and the quality of care provided. Ian continues to provide a valued contribution to promote health and social care partnership working to deliver integrated services to patients.
Julia Mann
Wansbeck 
Julia is particularly interested in patient experience and has interacted with many aspects of the Trust’s activities as a patient, carer and visitor as well as a volunteer.
Helen Bramald
Wansbeck
Helen has lived within the boundaries of Northumbria Healthcare her whole life and has also spent most of her working life within the region across Local Government and the NHS, four years of which were spent working for Northumbria.
Helen is currently the Managing Director of CPP LLP an organisation wholly owned by four NHS Trusts, providing national clinical contracts under the Department of Health & Social Care’s procurement transformation programme.
Helen has a robust working knowledge of NHS policy and Trust governance and has much experience of stakeholder engagement and partnership working. She enjoys challenging the as-is and driving the agreed direction to provide the very best outcome for the local residents, the patient, the family and the wider community.
Stephen Prandle
Hexham 
Stephen has a lot of experience in public service – almost 40 years as a teacher including 20 years as a secondary school headteacher in both North Tyneside and Northumberland. Like many others he has had direct experience of the wonderful care the NHS provides and wants to continue to use his professional skills - such as strategic planning, financial management, and human resource leadership – to assist in the governance of his local NHS Trust.
Stephen has lived in Hexham for more than 30 years and has a commitment both to the local NHS in Northumbria and also the wider provision of health services.
Jenny Firth-Cozens
Hexham 
Having recently received NHS treatment Jenny has a new and useful understanding of the quality of care locally, which she found to be largely very good. She is a retired clinical and organisational psychologist and worked between academia and NHS: clinically in hospitals, and organisationally in the UK and in Europe, encouraging quality and clinical effectiveness, and looking at ways to investigate why things go wrong. She has published over 150 academic papers and chapters, written books such as How to Survive a Career in Medicine (BMJ), and Audit in Mental Health Services; and edited others such as Stress in Health Professionals (Wiley), as well as a number of reports for the NHS on how things are working for patients and staff.
Jenny retains a strong interest in the importance of looking after staff in order to maintain good patient care, and is particularly interested in the ways that two local trusts can work together to deliver optimum care to patients in Northumberland and beyond.
Anna Walsh
Hexham
Due to her personal experience with family and friends requiring critical, acute and primary care in Northumberland Anna brings genuine enthusiasm and pragmatism to the role.
Anna has have lived in Hexham for 34 years, she trained as a Registered Nurse and worked at (the “old”) Hexham General Hospital, where she worked in General Surgery and Orthopaedics. She also worked in research where she investigated patient satisfaction, teamwork, shift patterns and practice development. She also worked on early implementation of Clinical Governance.
Anna is currently teaching at a local University and her most recent research is about Service User and Carer involvement in teaching.
Louisa Deas
Hexham
Louisa came to Northumberland from Leicestershire in 2000, living in Riding Mill until moving to Corbridge in 2015.
Louisa was a magistrate from 1987 until she retired in 2011, serving as Chairman of the Bench for some of this time. She has also served on a number of committees, most recently as a Trustee of Tynedale Hospice at Home for three years during a demanding period for the Hospice of reorganisation, expansion and development of services. She is also a volunteer reader for Tynedale Talking Newspaper and Tynedale Talking Magazine. Louisa personally understands the vital role Hexham General Hospital plays in the community, and how fortunate Tynedale residents are to have such a high-grade facility locally providing a wide range of care.
Janet Shucksmith
Hexham
Janet has been a governor since 2017. Prior to her retirement she was previously a University Professor of Public Health and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation. She has experience of some of the biggest challenges facing an NHS Trust in our area – in terms of integration of NHS and social care services, balancing of high-quality acute care with community level health services, delivery of service in remote and rural areas etc.
Janet enjoys being a governor, she actively participates in meetings raising issues regarding the challenges faced in delivering services on the ground and planning for the future. She has a keen interest in health and wellbeing issues which is well grounded in an understanding of local need.
Janet is also a Trustee of the Tynedale Hospice at Home, chairing in turn the Community Committee and latterly the Governance Committee.
Graham Turner
Hexham 
Graham is a passionate believer in the NHS and the provision of high quality healthcare for all.
Starting his working career in the NHS 37 years ago within biomedical engineering, his career continued outside of the NHS within commercial companies who provided products and services to the NHS and Social Care. Working at board level for the previous 25 years, Graham has a wide range of skills which he hopes will assist him in thriving within the governors position, supporting the NHS Trust and the people of Northumberland.
Now retired, Graham is looking forward to his time as a public governor working with the other governors, wider teams within Northumbria Healthcare and the people who utilise the services of the trust.
Alan Cartwright
North West Tyneside
Alan believes passionately in the NHS . He is a retired Education and Training Manager with previous experience of serving local communities as a magistrate and local councillor. He has also served two terms as a public governor with Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, prior to moving to North Tyneside.
Alan believes he can make a contribution to good governance of the Foundation Trust.
Peter Blair
North Shields
Peter was running his own financial services business when he had a severe stroke in 2005. He suffered extensive memory loss, and lost the ability to read and write. He has since learned to write and alleviates his reading difficulties with the aid of “ text to speech “ technology.
Representing the people of North Shields as a Public Governor for a number of years, Peter takes a keen interest in stroke recovery for stroke survivors and their families. He is also President of Blind Ambitions, a local self help group of sight impaired individuals whose aim is to counter sight-loss by doing a range of social activities and making trips with sighted guides.
Gill Close
North Shields
Gill retired from the NHS in 2012 after 40 years service as a Speech and Language Therapist and feels privileged to have a rewarding and interesting career most recently as Clinical Lead, specialising in Deafness and ‘Early Years.’
Since retiring she has been able to spend more time enjoying other hobbies, particularly walking the Northumberland coast.
She has had voluntary roles helping in a local Primary School, as a Governor for a North Shields School and working in the Bay FoodBank.
Gills daughter is Profoundly Deaf and has had ongoing treatment for Crohns Disease. She has also been able to support her Grandson who was diagnosed with ‘Bubble Baby Syndrome.’ Alongside his parents and the nursing team he was cared for from six weeks to nine months in a sterile hospital setting. Since receiving a Stem Cell transplant he has made wonderful progress. This experience demonstrated the importance of bio-security, team working, listening to parents and the importance of cultural awareness.
Patrick Mayne
North Shields
Patrick is a retired Actuary and qualified as a Certified Director. He worked in the pensions industry for 40 years in the UK and South Africa. He had Polio as a baby, is diabetic and now in a wheelchair as a result of Post-Polio Syndrome. Throughout his life, as a result of spinal problems and arthritis, he has spent many hours in doctors waiting rooms.
Due to various personal situations he has always been very interested in health issues and since retirement he has also become especially interested in medical inequalities.