Our chair, Dr Stewart Manning who served as a GP in a South Leeds practice from 1976 until retirement in 2012.

He is excited about achieving our goals to improve patient pathways and experiences, and bolster joined up services with staff, particularly at times when the NHS has been stretched during Covid.

Deborah has worked in the third sector for over 25 years, as a Fundraising Manager for both large national and locally based charities.  Her focus has always been to build strong relationships with those wishing to support these charities nurturing their involvement and their commitment to their visions and values.

Volunteers are at the heart of all charities and Deborah has worked closely with both service and fundraising volunteers to maximise their involvement and their contribution to the charities’ work.

She brings a wealth of experience of volunteer management and fundraising to Yorkshire Cancer Community and wants to be an integral part in the future development of an innovative and proactive charity providing a voice for those impacted by cancer in Yorkshire and the Humber.

David officially became a Trustee at the AGM in June 2022 having worked with the other Trustees over a matter of months previously. He was diagnosed with cancer on both kidneys in 2020, having one removed and, shortly afterwards, treatment on the other.

During this time David volunteered as a patient representative for Calderdale & Huddersfield Trust working with Macmillan helping to set up and deliver various on line courses for patients and participating in many presentations locally and nationally. He has since joined West Yorkshire & Harrogate Cancer Alliance Patient Group and become a Cancer Champion for the YCC.

He very strongly believes that with the right support at the right time and with the right people, patients need not be as fearful of Cancer as used to be the case. As a patient representative his aim is to both support patients and also to influence clinicians in terms of making recommendations and suggestions for improvements and developments to enhance support for the patients.

Louise works for the Civil Service in Leeds. For many years she was a carer for her parents, looking after her Mother who had terminal cancer . She is passionate about making a difference and for the past 5 years has been involved with another charity with Stewart, our Chairman, The Robert Sinclair Davidson Foundation .

Together they have volunteered for several fundraising events for St Gemma’s , their local hospice.

She is especially interested in how cancer affects friends and relatives and wants to improve the support available . She believes that with our ‘CANCER SMART PROGRAMME ‘ we can reach communities who find it difficult to understand cancer and help them engage with available resources.

Engagement & Communications Officer

Jill started working for the Yorkshire Cancer Community (then known as the Yorkshire Cancer Patient Forum) on 13 March 2017, based at Healthwatch Wakefield and funded by Macmillan Cancer Support for three years.

Her role was to support the Forum to enable the views and experiences of cancer patients, families and carers to be heard and used to improve the quality of cancer care in Yorkshire and the Humber. Together with a patient board of trustees, we registered as a charity and established a network of patients, carers and healthcare professionals.

From April 2020, our Macmillan grant came to an end and the West Yorkshire & Harrogate Cancer Alliance funded us to create a cancer awareness programme, which became Cancer SMART.

Jill became the first employee of Yorkshire Cancer Community, and although the plan was for her to remain based with Healthwatch Wakefield, Covid had other plans. The office was closed and from March 2020, she has worked from home.

YCC continues to work in partnership with the Cancer Alliance, and Cancer SMART has gone from success to success taking a cancer awareness message across West Yorkshire.

Before joining YCC, Jill spent 10 years as Manager and Company Secretary for Communities Who Can, the Tenants Federation in Kirklees, ensuring that tenants’ views helped to shape housing services and supporting more than 100 small community groups, known as tenant and resident associations. She spent eight years at Home-Start Kirklees, a family support charity working with 90 home visiting volunteers. Jill also worked alongside her husband, Pete, in their busy Post Office and newsagents near Wakefield, for a number of years. She is a journalist by training, having worked on local newspapers in Lincolnshire and West Yorkshire.

Administrator

After several years of working in finance and accounts, Clare joined the Yorkshire Cancer Community team as their administrator. She has really enjoyed learning new skills, such as in marketing and design, and finds the role really interesting and varied. Most importantly she enjoys getting involved in such a worthwhile cause.

Like many families, Clare’s has been directly affected by cancer several times, so it is great to have the opportunity to be able to get involved in helping cancer patients to get the support and information they need at such a challenging time.

Outside of work, Clare enjoys growing her own fruit and veg on her allotment, helping run a litter picking group and helping at a local animal sanctuary by doing weekend maintenance, helping at events, and running their online shop.