Lisa Younge has over 20 years’ experience working as an IBD Nurse Specialist and has been responsible for the creation and development of IBD nursing services at The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust, and The Royal London Hospital, Barts Health, and St Mark’s Hospital/LNWH NHS Trust.
Lisa has published on topics including IBD treatment and the contribution of Specialist Nurses to the management of patients with IBD and has contributed to several collaborative publications looking at the provision of IBD care both nationally and internationally, including N-ECCO consensus statements for IBD nurses, the 2019 BSG guidelines and ECCO standards of care.
Since March 2019 she has been employed as Project Manager, IBD Nursing, with Crohn’s & Colitis UK, working with Isobel Mason and the charity’s Health Service Development Team on their campaign ‘More IBD Nurses – Better Care’, aiming to increase IBD nursing numbers throughout the UK and standardise training and support for nurses in post.
In April 2020 she started working as an IBD Nurse Consultant at St Mark’s Hospital in Harrow.

Lucy Medcalf has been working as an IBD Nurse since 2004 in London. She is currently the Lead IBD Nurse at Kings College Hospital (Denmark Hill site)
She is very keen on Patient education and is hoping to be restarting the CCUK events in the near future in a digital format.

Glyn Scott is Consultant Nurse for Gastroenterology & Endoscopy at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust. Within this role he is the Trust Clinical Lead for the IBD Service. He is working on developing and increasing the Trusts Nurse Led IBD service. Prior to this role he had a varied career in nursing working within IBD, nutrition, critical care, and management roles. Glyn is passionate about improving the patient experience and using evaluation strategies to continually monitor and improve the care delivered to the patient. He has always had a keen interest in using the workplace to develop staff to support the delivery of the highest levels of care. He has a wide portfolio of conference presentations both nationally and internationally and is constantly inspired by the good practice shared by all the presenters.

Fiona Donovan trained at Kings College, University of London and has been nursing for over 25 years. Following a successful career in Intensive Care Nursing, Fiona changed specialities and set up the IBD CNS Service at Kingston Hospital in 2015. Fiona has been the Lead IBD CNS at St George’s University Hospital, London since August 2019. She is part of the IBD Leadership Team with Dr Kamal Patel, Dr Andy Poullis and Specialist Pharmacist Sonia Kalyanji Mehta. She has a proven track record in service development and organisational change. She is involved in research and publication, including acting as Principal Investigator. She is Chair of Royal College of Nursing (RCN) IBD Network Group for London providing educational and networking opportunities for the region, as well as sharing best practice regionally and nationally.

Isobel Mason works as a Nurse Consultant in Gastroenterology, at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust leading liver and digestive health nursing services. The department is one of the busiest advanced and specialist nursing services in the Trust and involves 36 Nurse Specialists and Practitioners working as part of the multidisciplinary team in all areas of gastroenterology, nutrition, hepatology and endoscopy nursing.
Isobel leads the service, supporting and developing nurses and making strategic decisions about improving and advancing nursing practice.
Her clinical role previously includes clinics for patients with dyspepsia, coeliac disease, iron deficiency anaemia and a family history of colorectal cancer.
Isobel was chair of the RCN Gastrointestinal Nursing Forum from May 2011 until May 2019 and her work with the Forum resulted in the RCN Award of Merit in 2018.
In 2016, she started a secondment with Crohns & Colitis UK, to lead and shape their IBD nursing strategy. Launched with an impactful campaign ‘More nurses – Better care’ Isobel’s role involves national campaigning, supporting nurses currently in post across the UK, developing career frameworks and case load modelling in advanced and specialist practice and patient co-production. The aim is that all those living with IBD have access to a suitably qualified nurse specialist.

Lisa Whitley is the Lead IBD CNS at UCLH. She has worked exclusively in gastroenterology for the last 20 years in both the UK and abroad.
She currently leads a team of Nurse Specialists at UCLH and has an interest in adolescent care and service development- for which she received the BSG nurse award for service development in 2021.
She is a steering committee member for the RCN gastroenterology forum.

Lianne Lewis is an IBD Nurse at Milton Keynes University Hospital. With a focus on enhancing patient care, she has integrated a clinician and patient support tool to optimise care pathways for IBD patients. During initial medicine education appointments, she utilises this tool to improve patient understanding and engagement, ensuring they are well informed about their treatment plans.
Lianne has developed Ulcerative Colitis pathways and incorporated digital technology to support patients. These pathways empower patients to manage their condition more effectively, promoting self-management and attempting to reduce unnecessary hospital visits. Her efforts have led to cost savings for the healthcare system and enhanced patient and clinician experiences.
Through her work, Lianne continues to champion innovative approaches in IBD care, demonstrating the positive impact of various delivery methods in modern healthcare. Her commitment to patient education and support has been pivotal in improving the overall care delivery options for IBD patients at Milton Keynes University Hospital.

Philip Smith is an Honorary Consultant Luminal Gastroenterologist at the Royal Liverpool Hospital and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool. He is also Editor in Chief of the international journal ‘Frontline Gastroenterology’. Phil stepped back and retired from the frontline NHS recently due to severe complications of his own IBD, but remains active academically in his specialist interest areas which include IBD, and transition and was a NIHR Research Scholar in the North West Coast CRN and is the current Chair of the Mersey Gut Club. He was until recently an Elected Councillor of the BSG and has first authored and co-authored National Guidelines in Transition and IBD. Phil is also Digital and Education Editor of Gut (organising the monthly journal scans for Gut) and Associate Editors of BMJ Open Gastroenterology and eGastroenterology. He has spoken many times nationally and internationally on IBD related topics. He loves IBD Nurses!

Christian Selinger, MD MSc FRCP Edin, is a Consultant Gastroenterologist, practising in Leeds. Christian achieved advanced training in IBD during his fellowship in Sydney, Australia. In 2011 Christian was awarded an MSc with distinction in Gastroenterology from the University of Salford. His research into IBD led to the award of an MD from the University of Manchester in 2013.
Dr Selinger provides the full breadth of gastrointestinal medicine with a special focus on IBD. He has received a SAGE award for establishing the first joint IBD obstetric clinic. A further focus of his work lies in quality improvement in IBD, and he has led a national initiative driving safety and quality through assessment of steroid use. Dr Selinger is widely published with over 130 peer-reviewed publications in international journals and over 100 conference presentations. His research expertise lies within IBD with a focus on pregnancy, patient knowledge and views, and medication adherence.

Amanda Ali MBBS,MRCPI, MRCOG is a Consultant Obstetrician and Maternal Medicine specialist at Kingston Hospital where she leads the Maternal Medicine Service.
She is the lead for guidelines in South West London and Surrey Heartlands maternal medicine network, as well as a reviewer for the RCOG guidelines.
She has considerable experience in multidisciplinary care and in the management of women with complex medical conditions in pregnancy. Her special interests are preconception counselling and the management of IBD and rheumatological disorders in pregnancy.
Dr Ali has presented her work at national and international conferences and has several publications in scientific peer-reviewed journals in addition to co-authoring 3 book chapters.

Helen Janiszewski is a clinical academic midwife, with expertise around pregnancy and IBD. In 2021, she completed a mixed methods PhD study exploring the experiences of pregnancy for women living with IBD, using the findings to influence and lead multi-professional work developing midwifery care recommendations for IBD.
She is an honorary assistant professor at the University of Nottingham, and is the clinical lead for nursing and midwifery research and innovation at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. She has published her research in midwifery and gastroenterology journals.

Beatriz Abreu started her nursing journey in Portugal where she completed her degree in 2018. On the same year she moved to East Kent and started to work at QEQM as a Healthcare Assistant, on the gastro ward. During this time, Beatriz prepared for IELTS exam and after 2 years had completed the exam and registered with the NMC.
Once she achieved her registered nurse status, Beatriz continued to work on the same gastro ward until I had the opportunity to interview and join with the IBD Team. Now it’s been 2 and a half years, and, in her team, they continue to develop projects in different areas, including the joint clinics with the maternity team. This allows her to develop skills and competences.

Lesley Dibley is Professor of Qualitative Nursing Research at the University of Greenwich, London. She specialises in the philosophy and methodology of hermeneutic phenomenology and received her PhD in 2014 for a study of the experience of stigma in IBD. Lesley’s research investigates patients’ experiences of living with chronic illness, and her work has contributed to understanding the complex experiences of patients with IBD and Multiple Sclerosis, around incontinence and stomas. Lesley’s active research includes:

• the IBD-BOOST programme led by Prof Norton
• experiences of IBD amongst non-English speaking Bangladeshi patients
• understanding the transition to living well with a stoma amongst people with IBD
• understanding the lifetime implications of spinal fusion surgery in people with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

Prof Dibley is committed to facilitating research capacity and capability amongst specialist nurses. She has over 40 publications, and has delivered numerous local, national, and international conference presentations.

Fiona Eldridge is an HPCP Registered Principal Clinical Psychologist working in Gastroenterology and specialising in IBD at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. She has a particular interest in supporting the embedding of psychology within services with a view to developing more integrated, person centred, models of care – improving outcomes for both the individual and the treating team. She has extensive post-qualification training in a number of therapeutic approaches including CBT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Analytic Therapy, Compassion Focussed therapy, the use of EMDR as a therapeutic approach and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy and uses these approaches in individual work but also in consultation, supervision and teaching. Her research interests include psychological approaches in IBD treatment.

Claire Shaw is a Mental Health Consultant Nurse working at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Claire has a long-standing interest in supporting others to process the impact of work-place experiences, including developing and providing training, facilitating reflective practice groups and providing clinical supervision. She is the Course Lead for the ‘Facilitating Reflective Practice Groups’ short-course and is the Nursing Training Development Lead for the Trust. Claire has an MSc in Institutional and Community Care, trained as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and is currently completing an MA in Leading and Consulting in Organisations.

Alberto Barea is a Consultant Nurse with extensive experience in dermatology. He currently practices at Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (Kingston upon Thames) where he leads the dermatology nursing team, awarded “Team of the Year” in 2022, by the British Dermatological Nursing Group (BDNG). Alberto independently manages caseloads of inflammatory and skin cancer patients. In 2016, he developed the world’s first completely autonomous nurse lead biologic service. His main areas of expertise are psoriasis and atopic dermatitis (AD). He is a principal investigator (PI) for several clinical studies on psoriasis and AD. He is currently one of the clinical leads for the South-west London Dermatology NHS Transformation Network and an executive member of the BDNG.
Alberto is an experienced speaker and educator in dermatology. He has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire and developed training programmes for clinicians, such as the “Biologics Bootcamp”. He has been involved regularly as a speaker in national and international meetings, including the BDNG, BAD and EADV annual conference, the World Congress of dermatology and the National Institute of Health and Research.

Shaji Sebastian (Seb) is a Consultant Gastroenterologist and Director of IBD Unit in Hull, UK since 2004 where he leads a multidisciplinary team of IBD professionals. He also has a large clinical research portfolio in IBD with a number of prestigious multicentre national and international studies as chief or principal investigator and has over 350 publications in high impact peer reviewed journals. He places strong emphasis on promoting multidisciplinary research cross cutting themes and specialities with emphasis on global collaborations. He has co-authored a number of international guidelines including ECCO guidelines. He is the local Speciality Lead for Gastroenterology in the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR). He is the current Chair of Research Committee, Executive and Council Member in the BSG and was the past Chair of the Adolescent and Young Person’s section. He is associated with European Colitis and Crohn`s Organisation (ECCO) and has held many positions at ECCO and is the one of the current governing board members.