Governors
Who's Who
Chair
Lead and Deputy Lead Governor
Dr Antonia Hardcastle - Lead Governor
Alan Maltby - Deputy Lead Governor
Public governors
West Norfolk
Esmé Corner
Esmé is an experienced governor with a broad knowledge of the hospital, its governance and activities. Esmé is passionate about patient and staff experience. She has lived in Heacham with her family for over 35 years.
Prudence Fox
Prudence (Pru) has been a nurse in the NHS for 44 years, retiring in 2022. She started in Cambridge and London caring for adult patients and moved to Nottingham to continue with paediatric and neonatal intensive care.
Pru moved to Hunstanton with her family in 2000 and worked in Norwich and then as an advanced neonatal nurse practitioner at QEH for the last 20 years. She has previous experience of the governor role for local schools and as a staff clinical governor at QEH. Pru volunteers for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and her local parkrun.
Gilli Galloway
Gilli is an experienced company director and consultant in the public, private and third sectors. Her career has spanned stockbroking, banking, civilian disaster recovery, director of a Home Office initiative for the over 50s, and has provided services for disadvantaged young people across four London boroughs.
Gilli has manged projects in Wales and the South East of England for a national charity. She is a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, Chair of the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service Benevolent Trust and the volunteer Ambassador for the Norfolk Hospice. Gilli is a member of the patient experience committee.
John Greyson
John worked for a local fuel company for 30 years where he became a manager. He changed career in 2006 to accountancy and works as a self-employed bookkeeper. John is keen on music and has volunteered for Hospital Radio Lynn for 36 years where he held two terms as Chairman; 22 years in total. He is a dedicated volunteer and helped to set up talking newspapers for the blind. John is one of the 12 original ‘Festival Too’ organisers and is an active and enthusiastic Rotarian.
Dr Julian Litten
Julian is as an architectural historian with a broad knowledge of new build and the maintenance of existing structures. A resident of King’s Lynn since 2007, he sits on several regional architectural heritage committees.
Julian was responsible for steering the completion of the renovation of Portsmouth Cathedral and is particularly interested in ensuring that the hospital is maintained to a high standard until it can be replaced with a new build.
Julian is chairman of the St Margaret’s with St Nicholas wards of King's Lynn and is a trustee of the Lynn Minster Trust.
Mike Press
Mike has been involved in primary care as chairman of the Heacham Group Practice Patient Group and was a member of the West Norfolk Patient Group. He has been a district councillor for many years and became chairman of his local authority. Mike worked in engineering, concluding his career with a multi-national motor car manufacturer, working on European projects.
Mike has been a volunteer driver for the Norfolk Hospice, Tapping House for over 12 years. He is retired and has lived in Heacham for 20 years. Mike is a member of the business and patient experience committees.
Sara Shaw
Sara retired from the NHS after a career spanning 39 years. She is a qualified critical care and inflight nurse and worked in a clinical capacity in London before moving into hospital management.
Sara has been a professional advisor to the Health Service Ombudsman and an elected Foundation Trust Patient Governor. She was born in Ely, brought up in Cambridgeshire and now lives in Stanhoe. Sara volunteers for the Cinnamon Trust and for the Scottish Terrier Emergency Care Scheme in Norfolk.
Barbara Turner
Barbara is a diagnostic radiographer and has worked in clinical, educational and management roles. Barbara was the imaging services manager at the Luton & Dunstable University Trust for 11 years where she was a staff governor. Post retirement she worked as a bank senior radiographer in the cardiac catheter lab until 2022.
Barbara moved to Norfolk in 2019 and is keen to support the trust in her governor role, to help further performance, safety and satisfaction.
Kenneth Wicks
Kenneth was born in King’s Lynn and now lives in Clenchwarton with his wife and has a son and three daughters. He has supported ERS, the hospital car service, as a voluntary driver.
Kenneth is a qualified engineer with a successful career in the construction industry, working on Canary Wharf and defence contracts in Malaysia, amongst many others. He is a long-established member of the Institute of Building. Kenneth is a member of the governors’ business committee.
Cambridgeshire/Fenland
Betty Lewis
Betty lives on the Cambridgeshire, Norfolk border and understands the importance of having good, local health services. She trained as a state-registered nurse where during her 40-year career worked in both hospital and community services. For the last 23 years of her working life, she was the registered manager in a residential and nursing home for people with physical disabilities and in the charity’s holiday hotel, which also provided nursing services. She retired in 2013. Betty is on the membership and communications committee, the patient and carer forum and is deputy chair of the patient experience committee.
South East Lincolnshire
Chris Brewis
Chris served twelve years as vice chairman of the health scrutiny committee for Lincolnshire and is committed to supporting the trust as the key major health provider to the local community. Chris comes from a family committed to long term health and wellbeing and his mother was an early, successful recipient of penicillin. Chris is a member of the patient experience committee.
Alan Maltby
Alan took early retirement in 2012 from local government to care for his late wife. He is especially interested in cancer services and the effects of cancer treatment on patients and close family members which can sometimes be long lasting. Alan continues to work towards a better experience for patients and visitors to The QEH as well as a more efficient well led hospital. Alan is the chair of the patient experience committee and the cancer services user group.
Breckland, North Norfolk, and the rest of England
David Chittenden
David works in the finance department of the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust and lives in Cambridgeshire. He has worked in the NHS for over 30 years, including a period in the management accounts team at QEH between 1999 and 2005. David has experience of working in the Cambridgeshire health system and has previously worked in Lincolnshire, Hertfordshire and Norfolk. He recognises the importance of access to effective and efficient local health services, and the need for health systems to work together. David is a member of the business committee.
Dr Antonia Hardcastle
Antonia took up the Lead Governor role in May 2023. Since gaining her doctorate, Antonia’s career has been in academia and research. She was the research and innovation lead at The QEH and then head of education, research and learning. Antonia is passionate that patients should receive the best evidence-based care and have a positive experience while in hospital. She works closely with the chair and non-excutive directors as a 'critical friend' and works collaboratively across the region. Antonia is chair of the membership and communications committee and is a member of the nomination and remuneration, charitable fund and patient experience committees.
Staff non-clinical governors
Sheena Johnson-Banks
Sheena is passionate about advocating for people and brings a combination of customer service and legal experience to the trust and the governors' council. She lives in King’s Lynn with her husband and is currently studying for her master’s degree in medical law and ethics alongside working at the Trust.
Sheena believes that customer service techniques are vital to improving patient experience and have the potential to improve patient outcomes. Sheena is delighted to be joining the patient experience committee and is keen to learn how the trust is working to improve both patient and staff experience.
Leanne Kendrick
Leanne has been the library and knowledge services manager for the trust since 2021 and ‘loves her job’. The library gives staff access to the tools and support needed to carry out their function.
Leanne is passionate that patients receive the best care possible from the hospital and believes that the trust should strive to be a transparent and supportive workplace where people want to work, train as a learner and stay part of TeamQEH. Leanne is a fully committed member of the QEH team and she is a member of the patient experience committee.
Stewart Nimmo
Stewart has worked in the catering department for 30 years. He was head chef before taking on the catering manager role in 2017. His work spans clinical and non-clinical departments. Stewart takes pride in ensuring that the catering team provides patients, staff and visitors with a range of tasty and nutritional meals, encompassing many individual diets from allergens to religious requirements.
Stewart sits on the executive council of the Hospital Caterers Association which has been at forefront of improving national catering standards in the NHS. Stewart is a member of the patient experience and the nomination and remuneration committees.
Staff clinical governors
Three vacancies
Appointed governors
Jane Evans, West Norfolk Carers
Jane is the CEO of West Norfolk Carers, an independent charity supporting unpaid carers and their families across West Norfolk, parts of Fenland, Breckland, South Lincolnshire and North Cambridgeshire.
Jane works closely with NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Partnership and the Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk, informing and developing community involvement projects for the voluntary sector. She is a trustee for several West Norfolk charities, including Community Action Norfolk and a higher education lecturer.
Jane is a member of the patient experience, and membership and communications committees
Dr Sue Madden, University of East Anglia
Sue grew up in Litcham and trained as a physiotherapist. She worked as a respiratory physiotherapist in London before moving into higher education where she completed a PhD in medical sociology.
Sue has worked at different universities with a range of health and medical pre- and post-registration courses and for several NHS trusts. Sue strives to ensure the clinical workforce meets the needs of the NHS. She is the admissions director at the University of East Anglia and an associate professor in medical education at the Norwich Medical School.
Sue is a member of the business committee, and the nomination and remuneration committee.
Councillor Lesley Bambridge, Norfolk County Council
Lesley was raised in West Norfolk and worked in King’s Lynn and London, latterly in advertising. She was marketing manager for the King’s Lynn Arts Centre and King’s Lynn Festival and for a local further education college.
Lesley has forged links between schools and businesses. She is a school governor and a trustee for local charities and fits in some voluntary work. Lesley has been a borough councillor for 14 years and a Norfolk county councillor since April 2021 where she sits on the scrutiny committee.
Lesley is a member of the membership and communications committee.
Matthew Brown, Freebridge Community Housing
Info to follow soon.
Councillor Peter Wilkinson, Breckland Council
Peter’s career was in logistics and he worked for the Ministry of Defence, attached to the Royal Air Force.
Peter has been a Breckland councillor since 2015. He is a member of the Breckland Youth Advisory Board and has served as vice chair of Breckland Planning, vice chair and president of Norfolk Association of Local Councils (NALC) and was Norfolk representative for the National Association of Local Councils (NALC).
He lives in Narborough where he is a parish councillor and chair of the Narborough community centre. Peter is a member of the patient experience committee.
Rachel Boast, College of West Anglia
Rachel has worked in the further education sector for nearly 20 years, having trained as a nurse and then a health visitor.
She is passionate about the education and training of the future NHS workforce and is keen to promote the rich and varied careers and possibilities within the health sector. In her role as Head of Faculty, Public Sector Services at the College of West Anglia, Rachel is committed to continuing to strengthen profesional partnerships between the college and the hospital.
Rachel enjoys spending time with her family and walking and cycling.
Councillor Alexandra Kemp, Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk
Alexandra has been a councillor in West Norfolk since 2012. She is legally qualified and has served on the Norfolk Health Overview and Scutiny Committee, the Future NHS Workforce Task Group and the Nar Ouse Surgery Engagement Group. Alexandra ran a Carers Group in West Norfolk from 2005 to 2012 to improve the state pension for carers and worked in parliament on welfare reform between 2008 and 2012.
Alexandra supports access to dental healthcare and GP surgeries and is working on the Public Health Healthy Community Action Plan.
Health inequalities, care in the home and respite care are her key priorities. Alexandra is a member of the Patient Experience Committee.