Experience

Advocate

Brighton IBD Panel, March 2021-present - Member of Brighton Hospital’s IBD Patient Panel which helps to make changes to the services and care for inflammatory bowel disease patients at the hospital

Merakoi - Patient Expert (IBD), 2019-2020 - Providing patient insight to Pharmaceutical companies on IBD projects

Janssen Patient Advisory Committee, 2019-present - Advising Janssen Pharmaceuticals' UK management committee to have the patient perspective on key topics affecting their business

Worthing IBD Panel, March 2017-present - Member of Worthing Hospital’s IBD Patient Panel which helps to make changes to the services and care for inflammatory bowel disease patients at the hospital

Media work, ongoing - I have featured in newspapers, magazines and radio programmes to raise awareness of IBD. Featured in: The Daily Mail, Daily Online, Metro, The Daily Star, Mirror, Chat magazine, The Argus (Brighton), Worthing Herald, Shoreham Herald, BBC Sussex radio, Splash FM, UK Health Radio

I've Got Guts campaign, April 2018 - Advocate for campaign run by Bowel & Cancer Research to raise awareness of bowel conditions

Digital Healthcare & Healthy Living 2030 Task Force, 2017-2018 - A task force set up by the National Centre for Universities to explore ways necessary changes can be made for 21st century healthcare. The recommendations were published in a report called The Human Factor

IBD Unmasked, 2017 - Advisor to Marvel Comics and Takeda Pharmaceuticals to create a Marvel superhero comic based around inflammatory bowel disease

Faces of IBD, May 2016 - Award winning video campaign to raise awareness of living with IBD

NHS People's Panel, 2015 - Supporting patient inclusion within the NHS for NHS Expo 2015

Entrepreneur

NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme Fellow (cohort 7) - Workforce development programme for clinical and non-clinical NHS staff, run by NHS England’s Innovation, Research and Life Sciences group and delivered jointly with Anglia Ruskin University.

IBDrelief, 2015-present - Founder of IBDrelief, an information and support platform for people living with inflammatory bowel disease

IBD Children's App, October 2018-present - I am currently developing an education app for young people living with inflammatory bowel disease

Speaker

I speak on a range of subjects relating to patient advocacy, living with IBD and being a patient entrepreneur. Below are some of the conferences and events I've spoken at:

2025 - Health Research from Home Connect launch event
2024 - Improving care in IBD Parliamentary event, Accurx company conference, Brighton IBD educational event
2023 - Clarivate internal meeting, Crohn’s & Colitis Ireland Gutcast live (Dublin), Clinical Entrepreneur Programme ARU students, Celebrating best practice across the UK and exploring the future of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) care (Parliament), East of England Paediatric Gastroenterology Network, Brighton IBD Panel education evening, Patient Entrepreneur Programme launch, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, Guest - More than guts podcast
2022 - Reuters Pharma 2022, Media Advisory Board meeting, MedTech Integrates, Global internal pharmaceutical meeting - patient centricity (Italy), Patient Advocacy, Insight and Engagement Conference,
2021 - Pharma Integrates
2020 - Partnering for Innovation Summit 2020, Royal Society of Medicine - Power of Patient Generated Data: The Patient Perspective, Beyond (Vienna), internal pharmaceutical event
2019 - EMEA internal pharmaceutical meeting (Germany), Beyond (Barcelona), internal pharmaceutical event,
King's Fund - Emerging Technologies, Royal Society of Medicine - 19th Medical Innovations Summit, Gut Health Revolution by Zemedy, Transforming Standards of Care
2018 - Long Term Conditions Conference, Big Bowel Event
2017 - IBD Unmasked launch at the Takeda Pharmaceuticals national meeting, Big Bowel Event
2016 - Commissioning in Healthcare, South Thames Gastroenterology SpR training day
2015 - Self Care Forum, Science Exchange - Internal pharmaceutical staff event, NHS Expo

Mentor

Clinical Entrepreneur Training programme, 2015-present - I am a mentor for members of this NHS programme which offers opportunities for junior doctors and health professional to develop their entrepreneurial aspirations

Janssen UK, January 2019-present - Mentor to members of the senior management team to help them improve patient-centred approaches within the company

Digital consultant

Managing Director, Brightsite, June 2006-present - I founded my web design and marketing company shortly after leaving university. In this time I have worked with hundreds of clients to help them develop and grow their online presence

Behavioural Insights Team, July 2018-March 2019 - Contractor for BIT Ventures who use behaviour insights to design and build scalable products and services with social impact

Research

Food-related Quality of Life steering group member, 2017-present - Patient member of the research group looking at interventions to improve food-related quality of life for people with IBD

LUCID study, 2018-present - Patient member. A burden of illness study looking at the impact of ulcerative colitis on quality of life and productivity across Europe and the socioeconomic impact of living with ulcerative colitis

Cost of IBD working group, 2018 - Patient member. Calculating how much time living with IBD costs patients

Awards and achievements

TalkTalk Digital Hero: Healthy Living, 2015 - National award for “extraordinary people who harness technology to make life better”.

Sussex Digital Awards, 2017 - Awarded Bronze in Use of Video for Business category for ‘Faces of IBD’ campaign