Meet the Governors
The Council of Governors consists of 13 Public Governors, four staff Governors and eight Partnership Governors.
Public - Merseyside
Teresa Moretti
I have over ten years’ experience working in the NHS as a mental health social worker in a clinical role and I am very interested in the provision of healthcare and the implementation of best practice in the workplace.
I am experienced in working in complex care, within complex medical and emotional issues and supporting patients to maximise independence and function. Having been a patient of The Walton Centre for a number of years across various clinics I want to contribute to support The Walton Centre to maintain and progress the high standards of treatment and care it is recognised in providing.
In my work role I have a strong background in patient advocacy, a desire to protect autonomy and best interests and an empathetic and rationalised approach which would allow me to represent the views of the community to the hospital and work to ensure safe and properly resourced services and the accountability of the institutions that provide this care. I am proud to contribute to raising the awareness of the amazing work carried out by The Walton Centre and to support the professionals who care for the patients through ensuring that the care provided is holistic and representative of the patients views. I have experience of the effectiveness of collaborative working, and I am confident in contributing within this setting. I am a mother who is active in my local community, co founding a charity to collect food from local businesses, redistributing directly to those in need.
Carol Hopwood
Carol is married with two adult children and lives in Crosby. She qualified as a solicitor in Liverpool 1993 and owned her own law firm before later joining The Carpenters Group to become Head of the Serious and Catastrophic Injury Teams. As well as being responsible for the management, performance, and development of my teams she sits on the Operations Board and retains a caseload acting for some of the firms most catastrophically injured clients. Her focus is on rehabilitation and collaboration to achieve the best outcomes for her clients and working with Headway colleagues to offer community support. Carol is a mentor for Law Students at The University of Liverpool and in her spare time she fundraises for Headway Sefton and The Motor Neurone Disease Association. She has been a long-term supporter of The Walton Centre where both of her parents were treated for neurological conditions.
Belinda Shaw
Belinda was born in New Zealand and moved to Liverpool when she was four years old. She was previously a Patient/Carer Governor at Alder Hey Children's Hospital and is excited to be a Governor at such a specialist Trust. Belinda is currently unemployed but enjoys spending time with her three grandchildren and researching her family history.
Helen Jones
Helen qualified as a nurse in 1988 and retired in 2021. Both as a private citizen and a life-long critical care professional, she is passionate about equitable and excellent standards of care and the protection of the NHS. During her professional career she was employed by Cheshire and Mersey Critical Care Network as a local service improvement lead for The Walton Centre critical care unit. She was chair of Cheshire and Mersey Critical Care Network practice educators for many years, and an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in critical care at The Walton Centre. She innovated and led many service improvements, upheld exemplary standards, and remains passionate about patient safety and the experience of all service users. She said "Everyone who comes into contact with The Walton Centre should be satisfied with their experience and treatment. Everyone who works at the Walton Centre should be within a safe and nurturing environment, I would be honoured to be a part of maintaining that standard."
Public - Cheshire
Gillian Corker
Gillian is recently retired from teaching and is married with two daughters, aged 26 and 16. Before starting her career in education Gillian worked for five years as a manager in the George Henry Lee department store in Liverpool. After leaving retail Gillian completed a degree and then a PGCE and started working as an English teacher. For over 25 years she has been the Head of English in three different high schools, worked for SSAT promoting literacy, been a key note speaker at numerous Optimus Education conferences for educating gifted and talented students and consulted with schools needing improvement as a Specialist Leader in Education. Gillian is an avid theatre lover, reads voraciously and loves to travel - something she plans to do more of, particularly when her husband retires next summer. Gillian has taken early retirement this year so that she can pursue other interests including volunteer work. Her late mum, Margaret, was treated at The Walton Centre, firstly in 2010 and latterly in 2023. Gillian said "When I saw the opening for the position of governor, I knew this would be a great way to apply my skills in a different environment but where similarities prevail as well as giving back to the place where so much specialist care and treatment were afforded to my Mum."
Judith Guthrie
Judith has been a patient of The Walton Centre over many years. She said "I have an insight into the professionalism and compassion that goes into all that they do". Judith is a retired Nurse Tutor and was a Senior lecturer in Palliative care so can understand not just a patients view but of staff too. She has also experience at Board level as a Non-Executive Director at several NHS trusts in Cheshire and a Partner Governor at a community trust. She added "I hope to bring experience and energy to get the best possible patient journey including the comfort and safety for all treated at The Walton Centre."
Public - North Wales
John Taylor - Lead Governor
“Fifteen years after first having major surgery at The Walton Centre, I am currently undergoing another round. Over the years I have met many others who say their lives were either saved, or - like mine - radically improved by the skilled care of Walton Centre staff. They don't only mean the brilliant clinicians; staff at every level make for a 'culture' that delivers a second-to-none patient experience, for which the Trust is rightly known.”
John is currently the Lead Governor and Chair of the Advisory Group. He knows, as a long-time resident of North Wales how important it is to patients to have access to the world-class, specialised - often cutting-edge - treatments at The Walton Centre and the challenges to commissioning and service delivery. After a senior career in the environment sector, both charitable and governmental, he knows about the challenges of running an organisation that aims to be outstanding in all it does. Becoming a Governor is his way to 'put something back' as both a patient and critical friend, helping to keep up The Walton Centre's superb reputation; holding leadership accountable and representing the needs and views of Welsh patients in particular.
Andrew Wood
Andrew had previously been a governor of the Essex Mental Health Centre and, for eight years, an Essex-assigned governor relaying information and ideas back to the cabinet of Essex County Council, giving them a better insight into what was happening within the mental health providers of Essex. He was also Deputy Chairman of the Health and Overview Committee at Essex County Council, overseeing the health needs and provision of Essex by working alongside some of the senior executive team within the Essex health service, including hospitals and the CCG.
After moving to North Wales, Andrew was elected as governor of The Walton Centre, where his son had previously been a patient. Andrew is married with four children and eight grandchildren, and after 20 years running his own cleaning business, he now works in the rail replacement sector of the railways.
Jan Paterson
Jan is part of a community committed to a better life for everyone affected by neurological conditions, aiming for high quality, accessible healthcare services so people with epilepsy and other neurological conditions have the support they need to manage their condition in the language of their choice, and preferred method of contact and to get access services that they so need to cope on a day to day basis.
Jan has been with Epilepsy Action for six years driving change, linking in with numerous agencies. Over the years, she has seen people differentiate and label socially important human differences according to certain pattern that include negative stereotypes, for example that people with epilepsy or other brain disease are a danger to others; and pejorative labelling, “disabled” and “epileptic”. In neurology, stigma primarily refers to a mark or characteristic indicative of a history of neurological disorder or condition and the consequent physical or mental abnormality. For most chronic neurological disorders, the stigma is associated with the disability rather than the disorder per se.
Jan also sits on the Neuroscience Board, representing the third sector with neurological conditions.
Public - Rest of England and Wales Staff Governors
Professor Andrew Brodbelt - Medical
Professor Andrew Brodbelt is a Consultant Neurosurgeon at The Walton Centre and the lead for cancer at the Trust. He is passionate about The Walton Centre, and its role and development for the future.
Amanda Chesterton - Clinical
“I enjoy the opportunity to interact directly with our executive and non-executive team and developing a wider understanding of how the Trust operates. This in turn gives me more confidence in my organisation and the care that I can give to our patients.”
Amanda has completed one three year term as Governor and is also the Chair of the Membership and Engagement Committee. She has been a clinical lead Occupational Therapist at The Walton Centre since 2013. Amanda has worked for the NHS since 2003, after initially training and working in Australia. Prior to joining The Walton Centre, she was clinical lead OT for acute inpatients and the stroke unit in Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor. In addition to her clinical role in The Walton Centre, she is the Practice Placement Coordinator for all OT students within the Trust.
Partnership Governors
Emma Hughes - Parkinson's UK
Emma is an Area Development Manager at Parkinson’s UK. Her primary focus is to engage and understand what matters to the Parkinson’s community locally, and to enhance and expand the support network for those navigating life with Parkinson’s. Emma works closely with and collaborates with a range of different stakeholders to make this happen, including working with the NHS to safeguard health services and influence and advocate for meaningful improvements. Emma is also a member of the Cheshire and Merseyside Neurological Alliance and the Lancashire and South Cumbria Neurological Alliance. Emma has worked in the charity sector since 2008 and has been with Parkinson’s UK for the past eight years.
Jane Johnson-Cree - Neurotherapy Centre North Wales
As a Chartered Physiotherapist Jane has been involved in rehabilitation for over 38 years, working in a variety of settings within the NHS as well as in the private and voluntary sectors. She has been the senior physio and CEO of The Neuro Therapy Centre, based in Saltney, near Chester since 2012, where the mission is 'to improve the quality of life for people impacted by neurological conditions through tailored and inclusive services which support physical and emotional wellbeing'. The focus is on people living with degenerative neurological conditions, along with their carers, and the aim is to empower them through access to tailored exercise and wellbeing opportunities.
Jane has a wealth of experience around collaboration and believe that real partnership work can make positive change, which coupled with my understanding of these conditions and the insight into the challenges they pose allows me to champion the voice of the service user to try and ensure that services reflect their needs and are accessible.
Pippa Sargent - The Brain Charity
Pippa's work in public health has included posts with regional health boards, local authorities and as an advisor to England’s first national public mental health campaign, as well as academic honorary positions. She has focused on mental health improvement interventions at inpatient, community and population level, particularly around suicide, domestic abuse and wellbeing programmes. Campaigning for change has been a key component of this, including leading the North West campaign for smokefree policy change, as well as considerable work addressing the stigma experienced by people with serious health diagnoses. She has also led strategic large-scale public engagement programmes for NHS change, including patient involvement.
Pippa recently took office as Chief Executive Officer at The Brain Charity, leading a team with specialist knowledge and experiencing supporting people with the range of neurological conditions. The Brain Charity has been operating from its Liverpool HQ for 30 years and provides support to patients at The Walton Centre.
Carol Roberts - Liverpool University
Carol is currently Head of Research Development and Delivery, within the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, at the University of Liverpool. She gained her undergraduate master’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Oxford and her PhD in Gastroenterology from the University of Liverpool. She then embarked on postdoctoral research, gaining experience in academia and industry, alongside clinical trial management. Prior to her current role, Carol was Portfolio Lead for Partnerships at the University of Liverpool, where she developed collaborative research partnerships between the University and outside organisations.
Julia Garner - Sefton Council
Julie is a research scientist at Bristol Myers Squibb. Her responsibilities include compliance and quality risk management activities within the analytical supply operations group.
She is also the site mental health lead and the cancer support network UK site lead. She has previous governor experience as a school governor and unit management trustee of a sea cadet unit. Julia lives in Litherland with her husband and two grown up children, and her hobbies include reading, baking, cooking, attending the theatre and live music.
Debbie Cooke - Liverpool City Council
Debbie has a DipSW and BA Hons in Social Work and Community Studies and a background of working with offenders for the Probation Service. She has worked supporting homeless people since starting with Local Solutions in 1992 and has been a member of Local Solutions Leadership team since 2006. Debbie is the councillor for Fazakerley East and also a Trustee of Merseyside Youth Association (MYA).
Amanda Miller - Edge Hill University
Dr Amanda Miller is the Head of Simulation and Skills Education at Edge Hill University. Amanda joined Edge Hill University in October 2022 and is a Reader in Simulation. She qualified as a Children's Nurse in 1997 and before beginning her academic career worked in a variety of practice areas, including paediatric accident and emergency, children's community, and children’s oncology/haematology. In 2006, she joined the University of Salford as a Lecturer in Children and Young People’s Nursing and during her time there, completed her PhD and developed her expertise in the use of simulation-based education in healthcare.
Patricia O'Keefe - Northwest Coast Clinical Network
Trish is the Programme Manager for the Cheshire and Mersey Integrated Stroke Delivery Network (ISDN) which is part of NHS England. She has 15 years’ experience in the NHS and previous to her current position, held several management and quality improvement roles across inpatient and outpatient settings within Cheshire and Merseyside. As ISDN Programme Manager, Trish works with providers and clinicians to quality improve stroke services for patients in Cheshire and Merseyside from prevention to life after stroke. Trish is an advocate of the patient and public voice (PPV) and regularly chairs the PPV meeting for stroke patients in Cheshire and Merseyside. She lives on the Wirral with her husband and two children and has two dogs who keep her and her family busy.
Corporate Secretary
Tel: 0151 556 3477
Membership Manager
Tel: 0151 556 3484
Email: Nicola.Troy@nhs.net