Meet the Team

Cancer Care has been a life-long passion for Claire, and she has worked in cancer services most of her NHS career in Greater Manchester (GM). She has had the privilege to have gained a wealth of clinical and senior management experience over the last 22 years, working with some of the best and most experienced cancer clinicians, nurses, AHP’s and leaders in GM, as well as many inspiring cancer patients and their families.
Her career began as Oncology Nurse at the Christie hospital in 2002, working with patients with complex cancer needs and palliative care, having the privilege to support patients and their families through their most difficult times at the end of life. She then worked in Cancer research for several years, as well as a number of senior operational management roles at the Christie.
She took up the role at GM Cancer in 2016, developing plans to redesign pathways of several tumour boards ensuring all cancer types had a programme of work to support service redesign and led the review of the Cancer strategy for GM, as well as working alongside the Cancer Vanguard programme. She moved to the role of Associate Director of GM Cancer in 2018 and in 2020 she progressed to become the Managing Director of the Alliance. This role was responsible for driving the delivery of the GM Cancer plan and delivery of the Long-Term Plan for Cancer in GM as well as the development of the cancer alliance team and leadership structure.
Under Claire’s leadership, the alliance has grown from strength to strength and has developed into a dynamic and strategically important arm of the NHS system in GM. The team are responsible in supporting the system to deliver not only cancer performance targets, but delivery of the ambitions set out in the national long term plan and many other innovative programmes of work.
During of the Covid pandemic in 2020, along with Professor Dave Shackley and the team at GM Cancer, they led the system response on Cancer and supported in the delivery of regional and national plans to sustain cancer services in GM. During this very difficult and uncertain time for patients, clinical teams and leaders in GM, the alliance ensured that cancer services were prioritised, and cancer teams were supposed in the delivery of cancer care safely in GM.
Over the last 8 years at GM Cancer, Claire and the team have supported the delivery of key cancer initiatives, including the lung health checks programme, Prehab for Cancer, CURE programme. They have led on key innovations in Cancer workforce and the inception of the GM cancer academy and well supporting significant programmes of work in early diagnosis of Cancer and personalised care and digital innovations. The team have also developed a significant programme of work with cancer patients, and we are incredibly proud of the cancer voices programme and our innovative communication plans, to ensure all patients know how to access cancer services early across all our communities, particularly tackling inequalities.
Claire’s passion and leadership will continue to ensure the alliance team continue to ensure Cancer patients in GM are diagnosed, treated, and received the best cancer care and outcomes possible, with the support of our passionate, committed team at GM Cancer. 
Outside of work Claire is a keen long distance Ultra runner and a passionate fundraiser for Cancer charities alongside her family.

Alison qualified at The University of Liverpool as a Diagnostic Radiographer in 1995 and has worked in the NHS since that time.  Alison has held a range of clinical and managerial roles in various locations throughout the UK and has worked within a cancer specific environment in Greater Manchester since 2005, working closely with clinical colleagues at all levels to develop patient cancer services.  Alison joined the GM Cancer Alliance in 2018 to lead on the delivery of transformation projects and improvements in patient pathways.  Alison formalised her leadership skills by successfully completing a Master’s degree and has also completed a level 7 executive coaching and mentorship qualification which allows her to better support the development of others.

Miss Susannah Penney is a consultant head, neck and thyroid surgeon employed at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT). She attended Bolton School Girls’ Division from 1983 - 1993.  She is a graduate of the University of Manchester and completed her Otolaryngology training in the Northwest of England.  As part of her training, she was awarded a prestigious national head and neck training fellowship at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

She was appointed to her consultant job in 2012 at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust where she also provided outreach cancer care to patients at Tameside Hospital.   

In 2018 she was successful in being promoted to Associate Medical Director at Greater Manchester cancer and is leading on several projects to ensure that anyone who is suspected of or who has cancer receives timely, high-quality care, no matter where they present in Greater Manchester.  She also represents the Alliance nationally in several key areas, including performance.

Within MFT, she has recently been appointed to Group Assistant Medical Director with responsibility for Cancer Care.  This is on a background of leadership across the organisation for the integration of head and neck services and as lead cancer clinician for Manchester Royal Infirmary.  She is firmly committed to high quality cancer care for all who require it, irrespective of background and circumstance.  

Away from work she has a young daughter who keeps her busy.  She also likes to play badminton and race cars (on a track).

Pic credit: The Greater Mancunians project 

With over 10 years’ experience in the NHS, Beth is a knowledgeable programme manager within Diagnostics. She has a strong background in structured project and programme methodologies and a proven track record in delivering projects within timescales and to budget.

Beth is a credible leader with extensive experience of managing wide scale system transformation programmes.  Beth is currently programme lead for the Greater Manchester Diagnostics Network, and within her current portfolio she is responsible for delivery of the GM Digital Pathology programme and Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) programme. Beth is passionate about improving the quality of patient care, and is an advocate for innovation.

Charlotte joined the NHS in 2018 in an admin role supporting the development of Rochdale’s LCO before moving over to support the Diagnostics & Pharmacy Group Senior Management Team. Charlotte has now progressed to a Project Support Manager role supporting the GM Diagnostics Network key programmes

Following several years in the private sector Yvonne has almost eight years' NHS experience working across several Elective Care programmes. Yvonne started with delivery of RTT training to hospitals across the country which led to a diverse range of NHS programmes from EPR development to transformation work within trust, CCG, and local system settings. Having experience of each of these environments is proving invaluable to the development of the CDC programme.

Tanya has over 20 years’ experience working in Marketing and Communications and has spent her career working across the public and private sector. Tanya joined the team to oversee communications with our stakeholders and to raise the profile of the networks. With a Master’s degree in Public Relations, Tanya has worked with both UK and international brands to raise their profile and brand awareness through targeted campaigns. 

Tanya is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. 

Leighan brings a wealth of knowledge to the team and started her imaging career as a radiographer at Northampton General Hospital before joining the private sector as an application specialist and coming back to the NHS as Radiology Systems Lead at Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust.  Most recently, Leighan worked at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust as Radiology and IT Performance Manager where the team implemented Sectra PACS throughout the radiology and breast imaging unit.

With responsibility for the continued operational delivery of the Greater Manchester imaging systems (including PACS and RIS), Leighan provides technical and subject matter expertise to drive, maintain and optimise all existing imaging systems across the GM region.

James started his NHS career in 2011 on the NHS Graduate Scheme, training in finance for 3 years at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHSFT. Following this he specialised in project finance, delivering QIPP schemes as a project accountant at Bolton CCG. Since joining the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership in 2017 James has financially managed an extensive portfolio of regional transformation projects focused on clinical and corporate services. These projects have delivered multi-million-pound savings for the Greater Manchester Health Care region, one of which being an award-winning procurement of a GM PACS, the largest of its kind in Europe. James currently continues to financially manage all the GM Diagnostics Network programmes.

Paul trained and worked as a radiographer before moving into radiology systems management, where he was responsible for the operation of PACS and RIS at East Cheshire NHS Trust for nearly 10 years. Whilst working as a Project Manager on the GM Sectra PACS implementation he helped to set up the GM Data Imaging Dataset which is now being used to analyse activity and performance across the network.

Gareth started his career as a Biomedical Scientist in Clinical Biochemistry, and has always had a passion for training and staff development, progressing in his career from a departmental training lead to a divisional training manager for a large Pathology service in Manchester. Gareth has over 10 years' of NHS laboratory experience with extensive experience in staff training and development and workforce planning, and uses this experience to help drive forward the workforce strategies for the Diagnostics workforce in Greater Manchester.

Catherine brings a wealth of knowledge to the team, as she started her imaging career as a radiographer at Manchester Royal Infirmary before working overseas and then returning to the UK to work in the private sector. Catherine returned to the NHS in Preston to specialise in MR, CT and Neuro Radiography before venturing into service management. Catherine gained a promotion and went on to become Radiology Service Manager at Bolton whilst also studying for her MBA.

With responsibility for providing imaging service advice, direction and leadership, Catherine will help shape the development of the network within Greater Manchester and more widely across the Northwest as Regional Radiographer.

Dr Rajesh Rajendran is Associate Medical Director for Infection Control at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, and a Consultant Microbiologist. He is also the Clinical Head of Laboratory Medicine for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, overseeing all disciplines within Pathology. Dr. Rajendran also holds the role of Senior Lecturer at Manchester University for medical microbiology, infection prevention and control as well as an examiner at the Manchester Medical school.

He was awarded the Membership of the faculty of public health for his work on COVID 19 and antimicrobial resistance and is actively involved in a Commonwealth Project in Ghana. He has been leading on the COVID 19 management from a clinical and infection control point of view in the trusts he is working.

Sam has spent the last 30 years in the Civil Service working across a range of Working Age Benefits in a variety of roles.  Most recently her role involved working on the development of an implementation process and technical training package for a specialist benefit review exercise.

Sam has also worked in quality management, producing frameworks to support changes in ways of working to improve performance. Sam has a passion for public service and achieving improvements which provide better outcomes and reduce inequalities for users.

Dr Sarah O’Shea graduated from The Royal London Hospital BSc MB BS going on to achieve MRCP before undertaking Radiology training at Manchester University. Gaining FRCR in 1999 she undertook a fellowship at Southampton General before returning to Manchester as Consultant Radiologist at Manchester Royal Infirmary. She is a subspecialised radiologist with expertise in Abdominal Radiology including Hepatobiliary, Upper and Lower GI and bariatric imaging, with non-vascular interventional expertise.

Currently, Sarah is Medical Director for the Clinical and Scientific Services at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and has seen huge changes in Imaging technology throughout her career with enormous growth in demand for services.

Sarah strongly believes that bringing radiologists across Greater Manchester together within the Network will optimise patient access to high quality imaging within the system.

Angela joins the team as PA to the Chief Officer and Programme Director, after spending 18 years in the NHS in various administration and PA roles.

Angela first joined the NHS from the private sector in 2005 as administrator on the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Manchester Royal Infirmary. From there Angela has held roles at Middleton and Rochdale PCT Continuing Healthcare team, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and North Manchester General Hospital.

Angela’s role at the Greater Manchester Imaging and Pathology Networks involves diary management for the Chief Officer as well as providing administrative support for the rest of the team.

Jack has spent the last six years working as a business administrator across various departments in private healthcare. In his most recent role, Jack worked alongside the fulfilment and governance team, to support the development and implementation of a new CRM database which was utilised across the business.

Eager to move across to the public sector, Jack was looking for a role that aligned with his values and his strong desire to contribute to positive patient outcomes. Jack is really excited to be part of the NHS Network team and is looking forward to developing his skillset and making the most of future opportunities.