Our trustee bios

Paul Howatson, Chairman

Paul joined the Board of Trustees at Wakefield Hospice in 2014, becoming Vice-chair in 2020 and Chair following last year’s AGM.

Since 2005 Paul has worked for the NHS, and his current and active experience as a senior manager in the fast-changing health and social care environment is proving invaluable to us here at the hospice.

Paul has previously been a member of the East Riding of Yorkshire Health and Well-being Board, and has also chaired both the mental health partnership board and the palliative and end of life care board in York. 

Paul was also one of the two regional leads for End of Life Care in the North East of England and previously chaired the Yorkshire and Humber Skills for Care end of life care in care homes project board.

From the start of joining the Board of Trustees, Paul has been able to offer his support to numerous fund-raising events.
 

Guy Cattell, Vice Chair and Chair of Income Generation Committee

Guy has been a Trustee since 2015, and brings vast Retail experience to the Board and helps support our fund raising team and retail outlets in particular. Guy is also Chairman of the Income Generation Committee.  With over 30 years retail experience across Store Operations, Buying, Marketing, Merchandising and Training, Guy has worked for many well-known names; Boots, Asda, Poundstretcher and latterly Morrisons, where he was Category Buying Director.  A qualified Executive Coach Guy is now CEO of his own Retail Consultancy and enjoys the variety of work he undertakes for various clients. 

Guy has lived in Wakefield for over 25 years, is married to Lyn and has two grown up children. When not working Guy enjoys walking in the Dales, socialising with friends and spending time in his garden.  Guy’s tenure runs to 2022.
 

Helen Hirst, Vice Chair and Chair of Finance. Estates and Resources Committee

Helen joined the hospice in the early part of 2019 and is the Chair of the Finance, Estates and Resources committee.  Born and brought up in Wakefield, Helen still lives in the district along with many members of her family.  She is married to Ian, has a fifteen year old daughter, Rebecca, a step daughter Vikki and a granddaughter, Freya, who’s three
 
Helen is also the Chief Executive of Bradford District and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group. She has worked in the NHS in Bradford for nearly 30 years.  During that time she has also undertaken work with the Department for Health/ NHS England as Director of Primary Care Commissioning (2010-12); Director of CCG Development (2013/14) and with Vale of York CCG as interim Chief Officer in 2016.  She is currently also responsible for the System Development and Leadership Programme and the ICP development programme for the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Integrated Care System.
 

John Milne, Trustee and Chair of Clinical Governance and Quality Committee

John Milne grew up in Wakefield and attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. Following training at Leeds dental school John has been in dental practice in the Wakefield area since 1980. He has also represented dentists at both local and national level and  was chair of general practice at the British Dental Association from 2009-2015. He was awarded MBE in the birthday honours 2015 for services to dentistry. 

John is now the senior national dental advisor to the Care Quality Commission. John has been a supporter of the hospice since its foundation  and is delighted to bring his clinical and regulatory knowledge to assist the hospice at this time. He enjoys playing golf (badly), skiing when the knees permit and is also a keen bridge player. 
 

Mark Ashton, Trustee

Mark has been a trustee of the Hospice since 2018.   During the week he is a lawyer, and has advised charities of all shapes and sizes for over 10 years.   On a weekend you may find him following his beloved Huddersfield Town; on a cricket field; or riding his motorcycle.

Nina Bains Williams, Trustee

Nina joined the Hospice in 2019 as a trustee. She has over 20 years of IT experience, specialising in Infrastructure, Risk Remediation, Transformation, and service sustaining change, within the Finance, Telecommunications, Motor and Retail Industries. With her Business and IT knowledge she is an active member of the Finance, Estates and Resources committee. Nina lives in West Yorkshire with her family and keen on travelling and exploring new cultures and countries, she is an amateur sommelier learning more through her travels and experiences.
 

Sarah Black, Trustee

Bio to be added

Bébhinn Browne, Trustee

Bébhinn joined the hospice in late 2020 as a trustee, she is a registered, practicing, specialist physiotherapist and qualified public health professional.

Bébhinn’s interest in service development and quality improvement prompted her to apply for the role of Trustee; she is currently a member of the Clinical Governance & Quality Committee and the Finance, Estates and Resources Committee. Bébhinn is looking forward to bringing her expertise in clinical governance, public health, procurement, contract management and service evaluation to Wakefield Hospice, to support the commitment to providing the highest level of symptom management and care for people who have life threatening illness.

Bébhinn lives in North Yorkshire with her fiancée John and enjoys travelling and live music in her spare time as well as visiting her family in Ireland as often as possible!

Lyndsey Clayton, Trustee

I am a relatively new Trustee just starting in October 2020. I have a full time role working for the local NHS as the Medicines Safety Officer in Primary Care and also have extensive experience working in community and hospital pharmacy. I have worked for the NHS for 25 years, so I hope that I can support the Wakefield Hospice by sharing my pharmacy knowledge.

On a personal level, I live with my partner in Pontefract and we have a cat called Stella. I love eating out, exercising and anything to do with Marilyn Monroe

Mike Denby, Trustee

Mike is currently leading the economic growth and inward investment team for skills and business at Wakefield Council. Joining in April 2013 as Business and Skills Service Manager, Mike is responsible for engaging the Wakefield business community to encourage inward investment, start-ups, economic growth, jobs, careers and the upskilling of Wakefield’s workforce.

Previously, Mike was employed as the Head of Employer Engagement at British Land’s CSR project The Source. After joining The Source in 2003, Mike was responsible for leading the employer engagement strategy, supporting businesses to up-skill and retain their workforce, making them an ‘Employer of Choice’. With a detailed understanding of the skills and employment landscape, both locally and nationally, Mike has experience of securing national training and Apprenticeship contracts for household names such as Debenhams, Republic, Jaeger, City Electrical Factors and Cafe Nero.
 

Alan Hamilton, Trustee

Alan joined the board in 2020, having been a hospice supporter for over 25 years, since two different hospices cared for his grandparents in the last stages of their lives. His background is Cyber Security, Risk management, Crisis and Continuity management, having held several senior posts in a number of financial institutions, he is currently Head of Information Security for Royal London Insurance.  

Alan is a member of the Clinical Governance & Quality Committee where his experience in risk management plays a key part in the skills that he brings.

He is married to Angela, and has three teenage boys, and enjoys hill walking and motor racing in his spare time.
 

John Knox, Trustee

John joined the hospice in 2019 as a trustee, he is an Accountant and utilises his knowledge of financial management and reporting to support the Hospice as their Treasurer.

After having a career in the public sector in a number of finance and managerial roles, he moved into service management and is now Director of Strategy Implementation and Head of Property with The Diocese of Leeds, Church of England. He uses his experience in human resources, information technology, health & safety, property and information governance in carrying out his trustee responsibilities.

John lives in Skelmanthorpe, Huddersfield, is married with a son and a stepdaughter. In his spare time he enjoys keeping fit and a love of anything to do with Spain. 

David John Martindale, Trustee

David has been a Member of the Board since 2014 and his formal tenure runs until 2021.  David lives and works in Wakefield.  He is a Chartered Surveyor by profession and is currently Sales and Marketing Director at FSL Estate Agents having held that position for the last 11 years.  David utilises his knowledge of the property market to assist the Hospice in there retail and residential property matters.    Away from the Hospice and business David is a both a keen cricketer and golfer.  He has been married to his wife Joanne for 30 years and they have a 27 year old son Tom who is married to Laura and has two grandchildren Bobby and Rosey.
 

Rob Otter, Trustee

Rob became a Trustee of the Hospice in 2020.
 
He has lived in and around the Wakefield area for most of his life and works in Wakefield.
 
A Business Studies Graduate and Chartered Financial Planner, Rob is a Director of a Financial Planning business based at Calder Park.
 
Rob is married with three school age children and a dog, who keep him fully entertained outside of work!
 

Chris Phillips, Trustee

Bio to be added