The Team

Professor Mayur Lakhani CBE

Chair, Dying Matters Coalition and National Council for Palliative Care 

Professor Mayur Lakhani CBE FRCP FRCGP is a practising GP and active appraiser in Leicestershire. He was Chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners from 2004 to 2007. For two years, 2006 and 2007, he was in the Health Services Journal (HSJ) Top 50 most influential people. He was the youngest elected Chairman at the age of 43. He is the principal author of the landmark document 'The future direction of general practice: a roadmap', in which he first advocated the idea of federations.

Dr Lakhani served on the Cancer Reform Strategy national advisory board, the End of Life Care Strategy Advisory Board, co-chaired the Next Stage Review in the East Midlands, and was a member of Lord Darzi's Primary and Community Care Advisory Board. He was the RCGP 2009 James Mackenzie Lecturer and also delivered the Sir David Bruce Memorial lecture at the RAMC in October 2009.

Dr Lakhani is interested in clinical governance, commissioning of services and primary and interface development. 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 and has served on NICE appraisal committee.

In 2008 Professor Lakhani became Chairman of the National Council for Palliative Care. He also chairs the Dying Matters Coalition and is a nationally elected RCGP council member.

Eve Richardson

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

Eve Richardson is the Chief Executive of the NCPC, which is the influential umbrella charity that promotes palliative and end of life care for all who need it across all sectors. In 2009 NCPC was asked by the Government to set up and lead a new Coalition to raise public awareness of dying, death and bereavement. This is the Dying Matters Coalition, which 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 a Chief Executive in the NHS and has also run a successful international consultancy. She 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.

Jeff French

PhD, MBA, MSc, Dip HE, BA, Cert. Ed

Brunel University, Strategic Social Marketing Ltd

Jeff French has been acting as a specialist advisor to the Dying Matters coalition since its inception in 2009, helping to develop the social marketing strategy, research and insight programme. Jeff is a recognised global leader in the application of behaviour change and social marketing. He has extensive experience of developing, leading and managing public behaviour change projects and social marketing programmes.

With more than 30 years experience at the interface between government, public, private and NGO sectors, Jeff has a broad understanding of national and international health and social development issues. Jeff has been a member of the editorial board, two international journals and is currently a member of the Social Marketing Journal editorial board. Jeff has published over 80 chapters, articles and books in a variety of fields. He is a visiting professor at Brunel University, a Fellow at King's College University London and teaches at four other universities in the UK.

Jeff was the Director of Communication and Policy at the Health Development Agency from 2000 – 2005, before being asked by the Department of Health to undertake a national review of social marketing for the UK government. Jeff set up and managed the National Social Marketing Centre for England, and in August 2009 became the Chief Executive of Strategic Social Marketing Ltd.

Leading our User Involvement Programme:

Sam Turner

Director of Public Engagement, NCPC and Dying Matters Coalition

Sam Turner leads on developing patient, carer and public involvement across NCPC and Dying Matters. She is particularly keen on developing information and materials jointly with the people they are aimed at and would be keen to hear from anyone who would like to contribute to our work – you don’t need to be an expert, just be willing to tell us honestly what you think in return for a cup of tea and a biscuit. Sam can be contacted at s.turner@ncpc.org.uk

Joe Levenson

Director of Communications, NCPC and Dying Matters Coalition

Joe has extensive communications, policy and public affairs experience, having worked in senior roles in the voluntary and public sectors, as well as for Parliament. He joined us from the Refugee Council, where he was Head of Communications. Prior to this he was Director of Policy and Communications for Children England. Joe has also worked for the Greater London Authority; as Specialist Adviser to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights; and for the Prison Reform Trust.

Email: j.levenson@ncpc.org.uk

Jo Black

Involvement Manager, NCPC and Dying Matters Coalition

Jo Black works closely with patients, carers and former carers and people from marginalised communities to understand what will help them have conversations about death, dying and bereavement. We hear many stories of people learning the ‘hard way’ and wishing they’d been able to talk more easily. Jo wants this to become a thing of the past.

Matt Lloyd

Support Manager, NCPC and Dying Matters Coalition

Matt Lloyd produces NCPC’s communications including its magazine, Inside Palliative Care. He also manages the NCPC subscription scheme. Matt is also responsible for bringing many of Dying Matters' communications and promotional materials to life.

Sarah Stone

Website Editor and Community Manager, Dying Matters Coalition

Sarah is using her various experiences of growing and mobilising online communities to foster and engage a Dying Matters community. She is working on bringing social media to the heart of the Dying Matters website, helping the coalition reach out engage with its supporters even more. 

Sarah has 23 years' experience as an editor, sub, journalist and writer across a wide variety of publications. In the last ten years she has specialised in online media, editing consumer sites for companies including MSN UK, Hachette Filipacchi, Bauer Publishing and Mothercare. She has also edited a series of health books for Harper Collins.  

Email: s.stone@ncpc.org.uk

Jane Hillier

Membership support officer, NCPC and Dying Matters Coalition

Jane joined the Dying Matters Coalition in November 2010 and now is Membership Support Officer for both NCPC and the Dying Matters Coalition. She spent many years caring for elderly relatives and therefore has a keen interest in the work of NCPC and Dying Matters.  

Jane’s studies in Economic History, Population Studies and Development Studies built on her five years living and working in Botswana.  Previously, Jane worked for a UK HIV charity.

Freephone: 08000 21 44 66

Joe Meredith

Communications and Information Officer, Dying Matters Coalition

Joe joined the Dying Matters team in April 2011 and is now the Coalition’s Information and Communications Officer, providing support to members and producing content for the Dying Matters newsletter and e-news bulletins. He has previously worked for the children’s charity 4children and as a fundraiser for Cancer Research UK. Prior to this, Joe worked as an English language teacher in the UK and Spain.

Email: info@dyingmatters.org