Meet some of the people involved - Keele University

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Joan Walker

In my youth I served in the WAAF for three and a half years and trained as a wireless operator.  I met Arthur, also in the RAF, and we married and had two children – a boy Stephen, who is now a dentist, and a girl Caroline who is a teacher.  They presented us with four grandchildren who are my pride and joy.

In my working life I served in the City Treasurer’s Department before I had my family.  Then, for nineteen years, I worked at the heath centre at Abbey Hulton giving clerical support to the doctors, health visitors, and nurses where I saw much of life and its ups and downs.  It was a job that I loved.

Sadly, my husband became ill and suffered a massive heart attack and was a bad diabetic, and for the last years of this life I became his carer and he was in and out of hospital many times.  I had a lot of experience as a User and Carer during this time and he suffered so much.  However, we were happily married for 57 years and it was a blow when he died.

My hobbies – as a volunteer I spend one day a week at an elderly support group where we provide a day out for people who are disabled, and live alone, doing exercises, playing games, providing a meal, and good company (I hope).  I am involved with the local church and am a member of the Women’s Fellowship and Mother’s Union etc.  I love music, the live theatre, the cinema, and read a lot.  I enjoy being a member of the User and Carer Group and try to contribute as much as possible.

Margaret Brandreth

For most of my adult life I have been a volunteer for various organisations. My first foray down this road came about after answering an advertisement for volunteers at Elizabeth Trust Newcastle. I was there for twenty years and also helped with fundraising.

I was a Christian Aid representative at my parish church for thirty years organising the house to house collection – an education in itself! I also sell fairly traded goods at church.

In the 1990’s I worked as an appointment secretary one morning a week at Relate.

I have met many people from all walks of life, and feel my life has been enriched by how I have seen people deal with soul destroying problems but also how caring people have tried to help them.

My hobbies include walking, reading and the theatre.

Margaret Williams


I started volunteer work as an advisor at the Citizens Advice Bureau in 1996.
About the same time volunteered at Beth Johnson to assist with caring for elderly vulnerable people at a day centre in Biddulph.

I was then asked to be a Carer/User volunteer at the Steering Group at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Keele University which is ongoing.

Professor Sue Read

I started work in learning disability nursing in 1976, working at a local institution in North Staffordshire called Stallington Hospital, which is now closed.  Since qualifying as a nurse in learning disability, I moved across in education in 1986, where I have remained ever since.  My personal experience as a user/carer is as the mother of my son, Chris, who has cerebral palsy.  Chris has taught me so much about life, loss, and disability and was key to shaping my current research interests around loss, death, dying and bereavement specifically, although not exclusively, with people with a learning disability and aspects of user and carer engagement in research.

My role in the School is to support colleagues and local clinicians to develop good quality research, and to work with others to produce collaborative projects.  I am particularly interested in how we can work with users and carers in research, and am currently involved in several research projects where we are working closely to ensure that this happens.  I have been a bereavement counsellor since 1990, and still support individuals with a learning disability who have been bereaved or who have been diagnosed with a life limiting illness.  I also enjoy writing, and have had articles, book chapters and books published around the topic of loss, bereavement and palliative care.

My hobbies are reading, swimming and going on holidays as often as I can.

Sue Ashby

Sue is the User and Care Lead at the School of Nursing and Midwifery. Sue started working in adult general nursing in 1986, at the City General Hospital in North Staffordshire. In 1994 she moved from hospital based nursing to community nursing as a member of the district nursing service; later becoming involved in nursing patients who would have usually required a hospital admission but with extra health care support were able to remain at home as hospital in the home type services were developed. Sue moved across to education in 2005 and now teaches on both pre and post registration courses at Keele University School of Nursing & Midwifery. Sue is the pathway lead for the post registration BSc Clinical practice (Long Term Conditions).

Sue’s interests include working with service users and carers to inform nurse education and the provision of healthcare services. She is in her sixth year as a part time PhD student at Keele University researching the area of older people’s experiences of healthcare.

Mike Gibbs

RN (LD), MA, Post Grad Cert in health, Cert Ed, RNT.

Mike is the learning disability branch leader and is responsible for developing and maintaining the curriculum for pre-registration nursing in this area.Continuing professional development experiences include mental health issues in learning disability and epilepsy courses and more recently the development of a learning disability pathway for the BSc (Hons) clinical practice. His clinical background is founded in learning disability community nursing working alongside families. Mike’s main focus for teaching is learning disability, family care, and mental health in learning disability.

Currently Mike is working with a number of families exploring the caring role of family members who are looking after adults who have learning disabilities and suffer with mental health problems. Such work has been presented both nationally and internationally. Mike’s other interests include the involvement of service users and family carers in the development of educational programmes and working jointly on research projects which enhance the experiences of people with learning disabilities when accessing acute hospital care.

Shirley Goldstraw

Shirley Goldstraw