Volunteers

Lesley has been a GP for over 30 years. She obtained her medical degree at Glasgow University. Having previously worked as a partner in inner city Dundee, she is currently practising near Birmingham. She has undertaken specialist postgraguate education in Syncope, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Contraception.

Lesley is the Royal College of GP’s Syncope clinical champion. She is developing an open access online toolkit and a series of workshops throughout the UK to assist GPs and other healthcare professionals in recognising and managing syncope and related disorders. She is also Visiting Professor at Birmingham City University, where she helped to develop and teaches on their Advanced Practice MSc. She has written a number of journal paper on PoTS and syncope in primary care.

Lesley became a managing trustee of PoTS UK in 2011 and chairperson in 2017. Her goals include ensuring that all healthcare professionals have heard of and understand PoTS.

Morwenna is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist now practicing back in her native Cornwall at the Duchy Hospital, after working in a variety of London healthcare settings including the London Cardiovascular Clinic, Kings College Foundational NHS trust and the Nightingale Hospital. She has a special interest in maximising well-being in the context of compromised physical health. She has spoken and published widely on aspects of cardiological health, with particular expertise in the treatment of PoTS and syncope. Morwenna is a firm believer that mind and body are inseparable in their influence on disease, and both areas need to be considered to adequately meet patient’s needs in all healthcare settings; and indeed by us all in order to live optimally.

She hopes to help ensure that the patient pathway for PoTs is improved by improving awareness, reducing psychological misattribution of symptoms, and advocating for specialist multi-disciplinary services and ongoing research into PoTS management.

Michaela, is a cardiovascular nurse specialist with a unique and varied experience across the NHS and beyond. She developed her passion for prevention 23 years ago and has worked within it ever since.

In 2016 she left public health after working in the field for 16 years and now focuses on 3 main areas, as a Director for Smart Health Solutions, Associate in Nursing for C3 Collaborating for Health and Deputy National Lead for CVD Prevention at Public Health England.

Often seen as the voice of reason, she is the Chair of HEART UK Health Care Committee and on both the Nurses and Guidelines & Information working parties of the British Hypertension Society, a variety of editorial boards and the Global Cardiovascular Nursing Leadership Forum. Being a Trustee at PoTS UK keeps her firmly rooted in the challenges patients face in living with life altering conditions. She set up the Parents of People with PoTS support group and organises the PoTS UK retreat for patients and carers.

Naomi trained at University College Hospital in London, and completed further training at the Glasgow and Hertfordshire Universities. Currently she is the Lead Nurse at Peart Rose Clinic, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. She has been a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Hypertension for 20 years, working both in Primary care and Secondary care settings. She was on the NICE CDG 127 group, and the Topic Expert Group for Hypertension. Naomi assisted with the set up of Project Malawi, an initiative to set up rural hypertension clinics around the Southern Region of Malawi with the support of the British and Irish Hypertension Society and is a fellow of the BIHS.

Chloe works in Operations Management at a FTSE 100 Wealth Management company and is currently studying part time with Ashridge Executive Education. In her free time, she loves being outdoors with her dog, Rupert.

Chloe has been volunteering with PoTS UK since 2017, supporting with the organisation of PoTS patients’ days and retreats. Having been diagnosed with PoTS herself a number of years ago, she hopes to raise awareness of PoTS both in and outside of the healthcare community, as well as continuing the charity’s work to support patients and carers.

Lisa is currently in the process of taking over as treasurer from Naomi.

Lisa has worked in the financial risk and compliance field for the past 20 years for both Federal government, International Aide programmes in Africa and global financial institutions. Lisa has led regional teams on executing risk assessment, governance and financial management of globally prescribed projects to meet international standards. Lisa is passionate with implementing the charity’s agenda and increasing awareness to assist patient’s quality of life.

Lorna is one of the founding members of PoTS UK, who has PoTS herself, but is determined to live life to the full. Having been chair for many years, Lorna is now taking a bit more of a back seat but continues to ensure the website is up to date, meeting the requirements of the PIF tick.

Lorna previously worked as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in primary care but now works as a Pilates teacher, Buteyko instructor with an interest in breathing pattern disorders, and has also trained as a Stress Induced Recovery Practitioner (SIRPA). Lorna has many clients with PoTS, Hypermobility and now Long-COVID. Lorna is also an educator for Body Control Pilates running workshops for Pilates teachers on PoTS, ME/CFS, Long-COVID and Pain.

Sue trained as a paramedic and started PoTS UK to enable people with PoTS, their family’s and health professionals to have social and practical support. The aim was to link people in the UK with PoTS as nothing was available at the time in the UK.

Sue lives in Hope (both the village and personally) and has recently gained her private pilots licence!

Jo is an experienced administrator and joined the PoTS UK team in January 2019. She has a degree in Occupational Therapy and is fascinated to be learning more and more about PoTS. She is thrilled to be part of the PoTS UK team in between juggling the demands of her 3 young children. Jo is providing administrative support to the Trustees, allowing them more time to do what they do best!

Azura joined the PoTS UK team in May 2021 on a 6-month placement and has hit the ground running, supporting the trustees and Charity Secretary with a wide range of administrative duties.

Azura is currently studying BSc in Environmental Sciences and has a keen interest in research and the impact of the environment on health and wellbeing.

Azura enjoys the arts and travel, is a keen photographer and is also developing her skills in ceramics.

Azura was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as a child and is committed to working towards developing appropriate and meaningful support and information services for people who experience chronic conditions.

Melloney currently leads the nurse led Syncope and PoTS service at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust. She has over 30 years nursing experience in cardiology nursing, working for 20 years in acute cardiology.

In 2007 Melloney took on the role as Arrhythmia Care Co-ordinator with in the Cardiac Rhythm Management team, shortly after this setting up nurse led syncope clinics, which involve Nurse Specialists seeing all new patients referred to the service with syncope.

The nurse led PoTS clinics were set up about 10 years ago. These again involve the nurse specialist seeing all new patients as well as managing their condition and treatments subsequently. The service is supported by 2 consultant cardiologists.

About 5 years ago Melloney left her role as Arrhythmia Care Coordinator to concentrate fully as Nurse lead for the Syncope and PoTS service.

Helen Eftekhari works as an Arrhythmia and Syncope Advanced Nurse Practitioner at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire and has been there since 2009. Helen has extensive cardiac experience previously working with heart failure patients, cardiac patients and in cardiac rehabilitation. Helen is currently undertaking a British Heart Foundation nursing PHD fellowship in POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) working with Warwick University. Helen qualified in 1993, has a BSC (HONS) and undertook a National Institute of Health Research masters (reviewing the literature base in POTS). Helen has spoken at national and international events, writes in nursing journals and regularly peer reviews journal papers and charities patient information literature. Helen is the current President-elect for BANCC (the British Association for Nursing in Cardiovascular Care).

Dr Gall qualified in 1993 from Guy’s and St Thomas’, subsequently training in cardiology in South East Thames. He became a Consultant Cardiologist in 2004, based at King’s College Hospital, London. He is also an Honorary Senior Lecturer at King’s College, London. He is a Cardiologist with a special interest in arrhythmia investigation and treatment. He has a particular interest in dizzy spells, blackouts and collapses of uncertain cause, working closely with colleagues in neurology and ENT. His interest in this area has led on to an interest in autonomic problems and therefore the management of PoTS and IST (inappropriate sinus tachycardia). He is a medical advisor and patron of PoTS UK.

Blair P. Grubb, is a native of Baltimore, Maryland and earned an undergraduate degree in Biologic Sciences from the University of Maryland (Baltimore County). He received an M.D from the Universidad Central del Este in the Dominican Republic. He completed residency training at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center where he was also Chief Resident: While doing a rotation in cardiology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital he became interested in Cardiac Electrophysiology after watching some of the first human defibrillator implants. He then completed a fellowship in Cardiology and Cardiac Electrophysiology at the Pennsylvania State University. He is presently a professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Toledo, Health Science Campus where he is also director of the Electrophysiology Program and the Syncope and Autonomic Disorders Clinic at the University Medical Center. He has authored over 240 scientific papers as well as 5 books, and 35 book chapters. He has been awarded the University of Maryland’s Distinguished Alumnus Award (1994), as well as the North West Ohio American Heart Associations’ Legacy of Achievement Award (2001), the Medical University of Ohio’s Deans Award for teaching excellence (1996) and the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award (2006). He has been recognized as one of “Americas Top Doctors” for eleven years in a row and is also been recognized as one of “Americas Best Doctors” for 10 years in a row. In 2009 he received the University of Toledo’s Distinguished University Professor award (the first physician ever to receive the honor) and received it again in 2015 (one of the few in UT’s history to receive it twice). In 2015 he received the Physician of the year Award from Dysautonomia International. He is widely considered one of the world’s leading authorities on syncope and disorders of the autonomic nervous system. His research has helped develop a whole new field of medicine: Autonomics, and he has pioneered many of the diagnostic and treatment modalities that are in common use today. He is an associate editor of the journal PACE and sits on the editorial boards of numerous other journals. His hobbies include writing, and he has published over 50 essays and poems, (as well as drawings and photography). A collection of his essays has been published as a book entitled “The Calling”. He is a survivor of renal cancer, an event which fostered his interest in Physicians Wellness and prevention of Physician suicide and substance abuse. He is a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists and Physicians for Social Responsibility. He was the husband of the late Barbara Straus, M.D. for 38 years, and has 2 children: Helen and Alex.

Dr Deering was appointed Consultant Physician in 1991. He established the Cheltenham Syncope Service, a part of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, in 1992. This highly valued service specialises in the diagnosis and treatment of dysautonomia including Autonomic Mediated Syncope and PoTS.

Julia Newton is Clinical Professor of Ageing and Medicine and Dean for Clinical Medicine at Newcastle University, Faculty of Medical Sciences.

Her research and clinical interests include regulation of the autonomic nervous system and its involvement in symptoms such as the fatigue that is seen frequently seen in patients with chronic disease.

She sees a large number of patients with POTS at the Falls and Syncope Service, Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust at the Royal Victoria Infirmary.

Satish R Raj MD MSCI grew up in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He graduated from Queen’s University Faculty of Medicine (Kingston, Ontario, Canada) in 1993. He then completed residency training in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at Queen’s University before moving on to a clinical and research fellowship in Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology at the University of Calgary.

In 2002, Dr. Raj moved to Nashville, Tennessee as a Research Fellow in Clinical Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. While at Vanderbilt, he also successfully completed a Masters of Science degree in Clinical Investigation, graduating in 2004. He stayed on as a clinical researcher at Vanderbilt University, rising to the rank of Associate Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University (with tenure) and an Attending Physician at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, working primarily with the Vanderbilt Autonomic Dysfunction Center.

In July 2014, he moved back to the University of Calgary (Alberta, Canada) to set up an Autonomic Center of Excellence. He is currently Associate Professor of Cardiac Science at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute and the University of Calgary.

He is currently Board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology, and Autonomic Disorders.

His primary research interests relate to understanding the cause and finding more effective treatments for the postural tachycardia syndrome and neurally mediated syncope, as well as disorders of autonomic nervous system failure.

Dr. Robert Sheldon is a Professor of Cardiac Sciences and a cardiac arrhythmia specialist at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute in Alberta in Calgary. Following a bachelor’s degree from Bishop’s University in Quebec, he completed a PhD at the University of Colorado in 1973, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology with Sidney Brenner in Cambridge, England, in 1976. He received his MD in 1981 in Toronto and happily completed his training at the University of Calgary. He is very active in clinical research in arrhythmia care. He has been a Division Head of Cardiology, Associate Dean, Senior Vice President Research of Alberta Health Services, and for 9 years was a member of the Governing Council of the CIHR. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Professor Melvin Lobo qualified from Manchester Medical School in 1989 and has been a Consultant Cardiovascular Physician based in the Barts Heart Centre since 2003. He has a specialist interest in blood pressure disorders of all types and in particular autonomic control of the circulation with a focus on PoTS.

Since 2007, Professor Lobo has been Director of the Bart’s Blood Pressure Clinic which is a Hypertension Centre of Excellence and receives referrals of patients with complex circulatory disorders and PoTS on a national/international basis and has contributed to several landmark studies, particularly in the field of novel device therapy of hypertension. His research work has been featured on television and in the national press on numerous occasions. In 2012 he established an autonomic function testing laboratory in Barts to further investigate patients with dysautonomia. Together with Prof Kavi and Dr Gall, he coedited the Textbook of PoTS (Publisher; Springer Nature) which was published in late 2020.

Originally from Western Australia, Jane came to the UK in 1992 and has worked in the NHS, private practice, occupational health and higher education. Jane combines education and research at Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London with her role as physiotherapy lead at the Hypermobility Unit, Wellington Hospital, London. Jane specialises in helping children and families to manage hypermobility related problems such as recurrent subluxations, chronic pain, chronic fatigue and dysautonomia. Research interests include; Hypermobility, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Bone Health and PoTS management. Jane is passionate about patient and health professional education. In her down time Jane enjoys time with family, painting and photography and trying to keep fit through walking, cycling and swimming.

Professor Wilkinson is a Clinical Pharmacologist and Professor of Therapeutics in the University of Cambridge. He directs the Cambridge Clinical Trials Unit, and office of Translational Research, and leads the division of Experimental Medicine and Immunotherapeutics at the University of Cambridge. His main research interests are clinical/experimental studies designed to understand the mechanisms causing hypertension and cardiovascular disease, and to develop new treatments. He is lead investigator on the MRC/BHF-funded AIMHY-INFORM trial, which will determine the most effective antihypertensive treatment for different ethnic groups in the UK, and a number of early phase trials run in collaboration with Industry partners. He also leads the Cambridge Experimental Medicine Training Initiative – which aims to create the next generation of clinical researchers to develop the medicines of the future.

Cat Smith has been the Member of Parliament for Lancaster and Fleetwood since May 2015 and she has served in Labour’s shadow cabinet since 2016. Although she was diagnosed with PoTS before being elected to Parliament, she revealed she had PoTS after fainting in the House of Commons in 2020.

Cat became aware of PoTS UK and utilised the charity 10 years ago when diagnosed. She is delighted to become a Patron of PoTS UK and looks forward to offering her support to the charity whenever possible.

Professor Gammage qualified MB,ChB from the University of Birmingham in 1979 and joined the University again in 1983 to work in the Departments of Cardiovascular Medicine and Physiology as a British Heart Foundation Junior Research Fellow. His research work resulted in the award of MD in 1987 and he was appointed BHF Senior Lecturer in Birmingham and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at the General and Queen Elizabeth Hospitals in 1990. He developed his interest in pacemakers and syncope and was elected a Fellow of both the Heart Rhythm Society and the European Society of Cardiology. He was later appointed Reader and then Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine.

As a result of recognising the poor provision of clinical services for syncope patients, he set up the first Syncope Clinic in the West Midlands, allowing a more structured approach to local diagnosis and management of patients with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome and other syncopal syndromes.

Recently retired, Professor Gammage is delighted to become a Patron for PoTS UK and is keen to support the charity and improve the services offered to PoTS patients.

Adam Jacobs is an exciting photographer whose eclectic portfolio has attracted considerable commercial attention from an array of blue chip clients ranging from Adidas to Ocado and RBS to Wagamama. Additionally, Adam has photographed college and professional sporting events globally including the London 2012 Olympics and World Cup Finals, capturing iconic images that have been used both commercially and editorially by clients including ESPN, US Soccer and Sports Illustrated. He is also adept at candid portraiture having photographed well-known figures including Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama, Andy Murray and Sir Mick Jagger on commissioned assignments. Furthermore, his fine-art work has been displayed in museums, hangs in state senates and some pieces from his new and ongoing series, “Abandoned Spaces”, form parts of exclusive private collections including the “Sir Elton John Photography Collection”. To view Adam’s work, visit www.AdamJacobsPhotography.com where you can also find details on his photography workshops and classes

Originally from London, Adam’s enthusiasm for photography was sparked when studying in Australia and further invigorated by his extensive travels around Europe, Asia and the Americas. However, it was only after being diagnosed with Chronic Daily Migraine and POTS, which effectively forced him into spending almost two years lying in a dark room, that Adam’s passion for taking pictures was galvanized from a hobby into a concrete career. Indeed, he credits much of his ability to see the artistic even in the most mundane subject matter as stemming from the absence of light, color and form during this debilitating period. Whether standing on the roof of Buckingham Palace to capture a panorama to commemorate the Queen’s Jubilee, photographing luxurious hotel suites in Vegas for MGM, or being fortunate enough to be in the privacy of Nelson Mandela’s residence to freeze candid moments between some of the world’s greatest leaders, Adam has the most extensive portfolio of varied and colourful photos; an incredible achievement for someone who has endured a long journey back from ill health. He continues to be a POTS sufferer and is a keen advocate for all those with invisible illnesses.

Phil Hammond is a doctor, journalist, broadcaster, campaigner and comedian. He qualified as a GP in 1991 and is currently works in a specialist NHS centre for children and adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome/ME. Phil is also a presenter on BBC Radio Bristol and has been Private Eye’s medical correspondent since 1992, campaigning for patient empowerment, open data in healthcare and for the NHS to be honest and transparent about the harm it causes as well as all the good it does. Phil has won awards for broadcasting, journalism, comedy and teaching. He is an NHS Top 100 Clinical Leader, a Vice President of the Patients’ Association and a patron of Meningitis UK, the Doctors’ Support Network, the Herpes Viruses Association, Patients First , PoTS and Kissing It Better. He is also a fundraiser and adviser to the Association of Young People with ME

This is what Peter has to say:

“Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS) is an illness that especially affects young people. They often find the symptoms, including dizziness, anxiety, stomach problems and passing out, mis-diagnosed as being simply consequences of their age. The more that people know about this syndrome the better, so I wholeheartedly support the work of the charity POTS UK, which aims to increase awareness of the syndrome amongst both the public and health professionals. I hope anyone who recognises these symptoms will check out the website and realise that help is at hand and that they are not on their own.” Peter Capaldi