Leila Williams

Chair of Trustees

Leila Williams joins the board with a wealth of experience, most recently as co-founder of the NHS Transformation Unit located in Manchester.

Throughout an NHS career of more than 30 years, Leila has been at the forefront of health and care transformation leading a number of major transformation programmes, most notably in children’s services which remains her proudest achievement and overriding passion.

Leila lives in Warrington with her family and enjoys being active in local community issues as well as walking and swimming.

Alison Gow

Trustee

Alison is a journalist, media consultant and former newspaper and digital editor. Working in the news industry for more than 30 years, she has wide experience of content development, audience engagement and new product launches, and as a Fellow, and past President, of the Society of Editors, she has extensive contacts across the regional, national and international media industry.

She said: “I became aware of Claire House, and the special place it has in so many people’s hearts, when I joined the Liverpool Post & Echo, and I feel privileged to support the incredible work it does.”

Alison lives in North Wales, and loves spending time in the mountains when she’s not working.

Andrew Selby

Trustee

Andrew has extensive clinical experience, training in general medicine, paediatrics, and anaesthetics. After a distinguished career that has taken him around the UK and beyond, he is semi-retired but still works part-time as a Consultant in Paediatric Intensive Care and Long Term Ventilation at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.”

He says: “I have looked after many children and their families who have been supported by Claire House and I know how important this has been for them. I am thrilled to become a trustee and to be part of the Claire House team.”

A Yorkshire man by birth, Andrew has lived in south Liverpool for the past 27 years and outside work he enjoys cooking, swimming, cycling and playing the saxophone.

Catherine Greening

Trustee

Joining the board in March 2023, Catherine is a qualified Chartered Accountant with over 20 years experience working with investors and management teams in private equity backed businesses. Catherine has spent the last 10 years on the group board of cloud hosting business ANS, where she held the roles of CFO and M&A Director. Prior to ANS, Catherine was Commercial Director of national childrens nursery chain Kidsunlimited (now part of Bright Horizons).

Catherine has extensive experience of working with businesses going through periods of strategic change to ensure a focus on growth and value creation.

Having grown up on the Wirral but spent most of her career in Manchester, Catherine has recently returned to Heswall with her husband Richard. Enjoying being near the beach, their little dog Chewie is now living her best life.

Helen Butterworth

Trustee

Helen joined the Claire House board in April 2018 as a Parent Trustee.

Speaking about joining the team, Helen said: “Claire House looked after my son who was diagnosed with a life limiting condition, and provided great support to myself and my husband during a difficult time.”

Helen felt inspired by the whole team and wanted to become a part of the Claire House family.

“I am a GP on the Wirral and understand the importance and great work offered by this charity. I have particular interests in the clinical aspects of the organisation and as a parent myself hope to champion the views of other families, keeping that as the main objective in future projects.”

Jonathan Bagley

Trustee

Jon is Managing Director at Trustland Construction. Working with many national and international customers, he has a wealth of business experience and his background in commercial construction will be particularly useful to the charity as we seek to improve our Wirral and Liverpool sites.

He says: “I have known about Claire House for over 20 years but become more involved over the last five years, running a few marathons, and taking part in a triathlon, a trail run and an ultra-marathon to raise money for the hospice.”

Jon was born in Portsmouth but moved to the Wirral when he was a baby. He now lives in Meols with his family and has been an active member of Caldy Rugby Club for 35 years. His other passions include good food and wine, live music and Formula 1.

Stewart McKie

Trustee

Stewart has a diverse professional background, from being an Economist in the Music Industry for almost a decade, to being a tax professional in HMRC for twelve years.

Stewart’s late son Fraser was looked after by Claire House, and he and his wife were supported by Claire House following his passing in 2021.

In 2023, Stewart left HMRC and joined Cheshire West and Chester Council, where he is a resident, to help them support the communities they serve. In September 2023, he joined Claire House’s Board.

Stewart brings to the board his lived experience as well as professional experiences of helping individuals and organisations work more effectively.

Stewart and his wife have a daughter Cora who keeps them on their toes. Stewart enjoys running and is aiming to run the ‘big 6’ marathons over the coming years.

David Pastor

CEO

David has been the CEO of Claire House since 2010.

David started his career working for British Airways but followed his heart into the charity sector at the start of the millennium with a move to Whizz-Kidz, working on events like the London and New York Marathons.

David moved into the children’s hospice movement when he joined Oxford-based Helen & Douglas House, primarily leading the charity’s income generation strategy before moving into general management and completing an MBA.

David is an outdoor pursuits enthusiast with particular interests in marathon running, climbing mountains and cycling (but not all at the same time!) In the summer he cycles his daily commute into Claire House from his home in West Kirby, where he lives with his wife and three young children.

He says: “For me, the best thing about working for Claire House is being able to feel the difference that everyone involved with the charity makes – I only need to walk through the hospice to know that all of the efforts of our supporters, volunteers and staff are so worthwhile

Jan Sutherland-Oakes

Director of Clinical Services

Jan joined Claire House in 1995, when she played a key role in the establishment and development of the hospice, and was a volunteer trustee for 15 years.

She has been a nurse for almost 38 years, 25 of which have been spent at Alder Hey as a Macmillan Nurse and a Palliative Care Nurse Consultant and became our Director of Clinical Services in June 2012.

Jan lives in Wallasey with her husband and two daughters and enjoys skiing, cycling, gardening, walking and scuba diving.

She said: “What I love most about being a part of Claire House is leading a hugely talented team who work tirelessly to maintain the high quality care we give to children, young people and their families, both in the hospice and in their own homes, and to lead in the development of the hospice service.”

Abi Pleavin

Head of HR

Abi joined Claire House in May 2015. Previously, she was an HR and Training Manager for a chain of private day nurseries.  Abi says: “When the job at Claire House was advertised, I made the decision to join charity sector and haven’t looked back.  The ethos and mission of the charity met my personal values - desire to make a difference and support children and families.

“I am proud we have been verified as an ‘Outstanding Company to Work For’ by Best Companies. Our charity is run on incredible people, and we will continue to push ourselves to be better, so that we retain and attract the very best”.

Abi lives in West Kirby with her partner and fiancé Claire and two sons. Her weekends are spent dog walking and cheering on from the sidelines at children’s sporting events.

Gillian Nove

Director of Income Generation & Volunteering/Deputy CEO

Gillian joined Claire House in 2014 in the fundraising team, focusing on individual giving and has successfully grown the lottery into a major income stream during that time.

She originally started her career in the private sector with roles in the marketing departments at Matalan, Littlewoods and more recently at Iceland where she worked for 9 years on regional marketing, direct mail and TV and radio advertising. She switched to the charity sector in 2013 and has loved the different challenge that brings.

Gillian says, “The energy and enthusiasm that exists in the team here at Claire House is huge inspiring and exciting and I love being a part of it.”

Gillian lives in Chester with husband and son. Originally from Edinburgh, she loves travelling and exploring new places. She is also a passionate fan of Scottish rugby and is often found at Murrayfield cheering herself hoarse.

Hannah Shannon

Head of Communications

Hannah Shannon joined Claire House in 2015 as Head of Communications, where her role covers all things to do with communications, marketing, branding and social media. She has had a long career in charity communications, having worked at Macmillan Cancer Support, ActionAid and Save the Children. She was also one of the core media team who worked on Make Poverty History.

Hannah originally trained as a journalist but fell in love with the world of charity communications after going on a Raleigh International expedition to Namibia as the voluntary press officer.

Hannah moved from London to West Kirby in the Wirral and has two sons who keep her pretty busy. She has a passion for travel, rooting round charity shops to find a bargain and exploring the coastline where she now lives.

“It’s great working for a charity that is known and loved by so many. Telling people about the work of the hospice and the children who use its services is an absolute pleasure.”

Kirsty Taylor

Director of Strategy and Operations

Kirsty has worked in the charity sector for over 16 years and at Claire House since 2013. She joined to lead the events team, with her remit soon expanding to include corporate and community fundraising and volunteering. During this time Kirsty completed a Masters in Third Sector Management and spent time researching and shadowing Children’s Hospices across the UK who have expanded to multi-site service delivery.

In 2022 Kirsty became a member of the Executive Leadership Team in a role that focusses on the development of transformation capability, enabling Claire House to deliver projects that will help it achieve its vision.

Kirsty says: “I feel incredibly fortunate to work at Claire House. There have been new opportunities at every stage of my career and it is really exciting to work for a charity that has an incredible workforce, big ambitions, and continuously strives to achieve its vision of being there for every dying child.”

In the ten years that Kirsty has worked at Claire House, she has relocated to the Wirral, married her partner of 18 years and had two sons who like to keep her busy! If she’s not at work you will find her in Roydon Park, at The Climbing Hut or cheering her kids along the Junior Park Run course at Thurstaston.

Dan Halliday

Fundraising Partnership Manager

“My job is to help our wonderful corporate supporters raise the vital money that keeps the hospice doors open.”

Dan has been with Claire House since 2014, starting as a community fundraiser before joining the corporate team.  

He says: “What I love most about working for Claire House is really knowing you are making a difference to people’s lives. My job here is to work closely with businesses by engaging with their staff and telling them about the incredible work Claire House does to support the children and families who need us most.

“We are really lucky here at Claire House that we are working with some great companies across the region, from huge organisations to small businesses who are willing to play their part in supporting their local children’s hospice. It’s so important that we share the importance of what we do to enable us to help more children.”

Matt McGeagh

Manager of the Heswall and Neston shops

“I like the idea of working somewhere you can make a real difference.”

I started at Claire House in 2019 as an Assistant Manager. I have worked in our Great Homer Street, Neston and Heswall stores and in 2024, I started as the dual store manager for Heswall and Neston.

I’ve been working in Retail since I was 21. Before joining Claire House, I worked in various roles at the Primark in Liverpool.

I’ve known about Claire House since childhood, as I went to the same primary school as Claire, the little girl after whom the hospice is named.

I like the idea of working somewhere you can make a real difference. Every donation bag that comes in is like an adventure, and you never quite know what you’re going to find.

No day is ever the same, and you have to be able to think on your feet. I like the interactions I have with customers and volunteers on a daily basis. Most people are really pleasant, kind and supportive of the work you’re doing for the charity and the work of the charity itself. You also get to learn things you’ve never heard before.

Rachael Hogg

Counsellor

“I am incredibly proud to work for an organisation where together we make life’s hardest times a little easier for the families who come to Claire House. To offer empathy, laughter and hope, like a beacon of hope to Claire House families really is a huge privilege”

“My team can offer a safe place for people to come and talk about things.”

Rachael Hogg is a Counsellor who works as part of our Family Support team, alongside five other Counsellors.

“Counselling at Claire House means supporting children and families during difficult times. The team provide a safe, non-judgmental space for people to come and talk in a warm, relaxed environment.

The main part of my job is one to one counselling sessions, however within our team we also offer therapeutic groups for Mums, Dads and Grandparents as well as social events for siblings and families. One to one counselling offers people a safe space to come and be able to talk about things that they might not be able to say to other family members or friends.

The groups help parents, grandparents and siblings to realise that they are not alone. For them being in a room full of others who understand how difficult life is, is really important, it can help them to reconnect and feel less isolated explains Rachael.

I feel honoured to be a Claire House Counsellor. Being alongside our families feels a privilege and a special thing to be able to do.”

Sue Denton

Hospice Lead Nurse

“Wanting to work at Claire House was one of the main reasons I trained as a nurse.

I did a placement at the hospice at the end of my training and loved it, but I wanted clinical experience so I looked for a job at a hospital. I worked at Arrowe Park for 20 years on the paediatric ward, then one day a friend mentioned the role at Claire House and here I am.

As well as offering respite care, there are the planned care, end of life and rapid response teams.

Getting to know the lead nurse role, I've spent a lot of the time with the children, learning their routines and spending time with them. You learn about lots of conditions. We now take more clinically complex children than in the past, for example children who have a tracheostomy.

Here the focus is on the one child, and we look holistically at everything. You get to think, who could you involve: the play team, physiotherapy, or maybe just that they should have a bath. The parents have a big impact on how their child is looked after. We can do here what they do at home with their child and it gives them reassurance.

I've learnt a lot about end of life care and post bereavement. The families and child come first here. Nothing is too much trouble and all the teams that come together to provide support, before, during and after a child's death.

I love the job, I like the pace and mostly I like the difference we make to the children and their families.”