Our Stakeholders

The Dying Matters Coalition is led by the National Council for Palliative Care (NCPC) and chaired by Professor Mayur Lakhani, who is a practising GP. The work of the Coalition is supported by Professor Sir Mike Richards, National Director for Cancer and End of Life Care, and by the NCPC’s Board of Trustees.

A small Stakeholder Group encompassing the range of expertise required to shape and steer priorities has been set up to ensure that the coalition’s strategy and priority objectives are delivered. Individuals have been recruited to this group for their personal expertise and not to represent individual organisations.

Mayur Lakhani

Chair, Dying Matters Coalition and National Council for Palliative Care

In 2008 Professor Mayur Lakhani became Chair of the National Council for Palliative Care and the Dying Matters Coalition. He is a member of the End of Life Care Strategy Implementation Board and was a Chair in NHS East Midlands leading on the NHS Next Stage Review.

Professor Lakhani has been a GP principal since 1991 in Sileby near Loughborough. The practice has won several awards for quality. An active member of his local Professional Executive Committee (PEC), Professor Lakhani is particularly interested in clinical governance and commissioning of services. He is also a GP appraiser.  In 2000 he was appointed editor of Quality in Primary Care, a quarterly peer-reviewed journal which is the first European journal devoted to quality in primary care. He has also published extensively in the areas of quality and health service policy. 

He has had a long involvement with the Royal College of General Practitioners College, where he held the post of Vice-Chair from 1999-2002, and Chairman until 2007. One of Professor Lakhani’s most recent roles at the RCGP was Chairman of the National Collaborating Centre for Primary Care (NCC-PC). Under his leadership the College devised a system whereby GPs can shape and influence the development of clinical guidelines for use in the NHS.

Eve Richardson

Chief Executive, Dying Matters Coalition and National Council for Palliative Care

Eve Richardson is the Chief Executive of NCPC, which is the influential umbrella charity that promotes palliative and end of life care for all who need it across all sectors. The NCPC was asked by the Government to set up and lead a new Coalition to raise public awareness about dying, death and bereavement. This is called the Dying Matters Coalition. It has a small expert project team,  a stakeholder group and has already recruited more than 15,000 coalition members.

Eve is a member of the Implementation Board that monitors progress with the National Strategy for End of Life Care.

Eve has also enjoyed a successful career as Chief Executive in the NHS and has also run a successful international consultancy. She has held has held a range of Non Executive roles at Board level on Housing Associations and was a Non-Executive Director of an NHS and Social Care Trust in Oxfordshire until 2008. She has an MA in Death and Society.

Mike Richards

National Director for End of Life Care, Department of Health

Professor Sir Mike Richards was appointed as the first National Cancer Director in October 1999. In 2000 he led the development of the NHS Cancer Plan. More recently he has led the development of the Cancer Reform Strategy (2007) and the development of the first ever End of Life Care Strategy (2008).

Mike has been a board member of the National Cancer Research Institute since its foundation in 2001 and was chair 2001-2008.

In 2008 Mike led the Additional Drugs (Top-ups) Review for the government.

Mike was appointed CBE in 2001 and was awarded a Knighthood in the 2010 New Year’s Honours.

Olivia Belle

Director of Communications, Help the Hospices

Olivia is Director of Communications at Help the Hospices - the national charity representing and supporting its 213 members that provide the majority of hospice care throughout the UK.

An archaeologist by training, she moved into communications by accident rather than design but always driven by the desire to influence social change. For the past 19 years she has worked in communications in the voluntary sector including roles at NSPCC, RNIB, Action for Children and The Princess Royal Trust for Carers. Olivia was a Trustee of Mental Health Media which challenged discrimination and ran the annual mental health media awards.

Sharon Blackburn

Advisor on older people, National Council for Palliative Care

Sharon Blackburn RGN RMN has worked in the Independent Sector since 1991. She has held a number of Senior Management positions in the Care Home Sector ranging from Director of Nursing and Quality Assurance to Managing Director of a Not for Profit Care Home organisation. She has extensive experience regarding the care of older people and people with dementia and is  an expert advisor  to  the NCPC. She serves on a number of national committees. She also is experienced in the management of change and achieving quality services for people. She is currently the Director of Policy and Communications for the National Care Forum.

Jabeer Butt

Deputy Director, Race Equality Foundation

Jabeer is the Deputy Chief Executive of the Race Equality Foundation and leads a number of our research and development activities.

Jabeer has carried out research on various aspects of Britain 's black and minority ethnic communities' experience of social care, including the work of voluntary organisations. For example, he led an investigation of black and minority ethnic young disabled people's views and experiences of independent and independent living, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. With Leandra Box, he investigated the use of family centres, which resulted in the report Family Centred (published in 1998). A number of the messages from this study were used to develop the Sure Start For All guidance document.

He has recently completed work on the development of informal support groups for young black disabled people as well as major study of social and support networks of black and minority ethnic older people funded by the ESRC.

Jabeer's work has been used extensively in policy and practice development and the guide to better practice in meeting the housing needs of black and minority ethnic disabled and deaf people won the BMESpark award for innovation

Paul Cann

Chief Executive, Age Concern Oxfordshire

After reading English Literature at King’s College Cambridge, Paul taught for five years. He joined the Civil Service where he held a range of postings at the Cabinet Office, including working as a Private Secretary to successive Cabinet Ministers. A subsequent spell in the private sector included working for The Independent newspaper. He joined the charity world in 1992 as Director of the British Dyslexia Association and subsequently of the National Autistic Society.  He was also a Trustee of the disability charity Contact a Family for five years.

From 2000 to his arrival at Age Concern Oxfordshire he was Director of Policy and External Relations at Help the Aged, where he had responsibility for research, policy, international strategy, media and external relations. In 2008 Paul was awarded the medal of the British Geriatrics Society for an outstanding contribution to the well-being of older people.  In 2009 he was appointed an Associate Fellow of the International Longevity Centre.  He is married with two children.

Carole Cochrane

Chief Executive, Princess Royal Trust for Carers

Carole has enjoyed a lengthy, exciting and successful career within the voluntary sector, initially with Volunteer Bureaux and for the past 13 years working at a senior level to support carers; her first encounter with The Trust was as a centre manager establishing North Tyneside Carers Centre.

In 1998 Carole moved back to London and worked for The Trust; establishing Carers Centres in South East England, developing training programmes to support the Network and delivering a Lottery Funded Network Consultancy Scheme. She also represented The Trust as a working group member on the Carers Strategy.

Carole maintains a passion for Community Development and for Pioneering new ways of working. In her role as Assistant Director Operations in the North, Carole combined Fundraising and Operations, with her operational responsibilities covering Northern England, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Wales. She was responsible for developing and delivering the highly valued Breaks for Carers, held annually at Pontin’s, Blackpool.

Chris Dainty

Director of PR & Marketing, Marie Curie Cancer Care

Former newspaper journalist who joined Marie Curie Cancer Care more than 10 years ago. Looks after all the charity’s communications, including its brand advertising. Spends too much spare time road biking.

Jeff French

Strategic Social Marketing

Professor French has extensive experience as a senior policy analyst strategist and advisor. Jeff is has an extensive CV that encompasses the development and leadership of public sector projects, social marketing programmes and communication strategy at international, national, regional and local levels. With 30 years experience at the interface between the government, private and NGO sectors and the public Professor French has a broad practical and theoretical understanding of national and international social development issues, health inequality and social exclusion, behaviour change and social marketing. Professor French was the Director of Marketing and Policy at the Health Development Agency for five years. Until recently  was the Director of the National Social Marketing Centre

Professor French has had over 40 chapters and articles published in the fields of community development, health promotion, health inequality, communications and social marketing. Professor French is a Fellow at Kings College, University London and teaches a four other universities and is a professor at Brunel University. Jeff is a member of several national policy and programme committees and regularly contributes to senior level policy roundtables and seminars.