As a registered charity, the Hospice of the Good Shepherd is governed by a Board made up of a number of trustees. All of our trustees are volunteers and do not receive payment for their services or support. For a list of our trustees please see below.
The full Board of trustees meets six times each year to review policy, potential service developments, finances and income generation, however our trustees also meet at regular sub-committee meetings.
The day-to-day running of the Hospice is delivered by the senior management team, led by the Chief Executive.
If you’d like to request more detailed information about the governance of the Hospice, then please contact us via email using info@hospicegs.com
The Hospice of the Good Shepherd is committed to providing excellence in palliative care and being an open and transparent organisation. We are regulated by the Care Quality Commission but we must also comply with regulations set out by the Charity Commission, Fundraising Regulator and Gambling Commission.
We are regularly assessed by the Care Quality Commission, who are the independent regulator of health and social care in England. They inspect our healthcare services and provide an external validation of them.
Our Statement of Purpose is a legal document that outlines the hospice’s aims, objectives, and vision, as well as the services it provides.
As a registered charity, the Hospice of the Good Shepherd is governed by a Board made up of a number of trustees. All of our trustees are volunteers and do not receive payment for their services or support. For a list of our trustees please see below.
The full Board of trustees meets six times each year to review policy, potential service developments, finances and income generation, however our trustees also meet at regular sub-committee meetings.
The day-to-day running of the hospice is delivered by the senior management team, led by the Chief Executive.
If you’d like to request more detailed information about the governance of the hospice, then please contact us via email using info@hospicegs.com.
Our Trustees Annual Report gives you an in-depth look at how we operate and our governance, as well as outlines the progress we’ve made in achieving our objectives during the year, to the benefit of local families.
Caroline joined the Board in June 2025. She was born in Chester and raised in North Wales. Caroline moved back to Chester after studying history and international relations at university and now runs a property & investment business with her husband, Stephen.
Caroline also has qualifications in law and marketing, was a parish & city councillor, was a member of the Independent Monitoring Board of HMP Stoke Heath, and a Governor of The Queen’s School for sixteen years; the last six as Chair.
Caroline lives in Chester with her husband, two grown up children and spaniels; she loves the ghost stories of M.R. James, vintage crime novels, theatre and watching Liverpool F.C. play at Anfield.
Yvonne joined the Board of Trustees in 2020 and became Chair in 2023
Yvonne has wide ranging senior leadership experience at Board level in the NHS, Local Government and Charities. She is an accountant by profession and spent her senior career in Finance Director and deputy Chief Executive roles in the NHS and Local Government.
Yvonne possesses particular skills in the field of financial management, service delivery and transformation. She has extensive experience of developing business cases and leading on large scale capital developments.
Originally from Ellesmere Port, Yvonne is married and lives in Frodsham. She enjoys modern art, travelling and spending time with family and friends.
Yvonne also sits on the board of Chester Zoo.
David joined the Hospice Board of Trustees in July 2025 and is a member of the Finance Committee. David is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and has extensive experience as both a Non-Executive and Executive Director, specialising in financial management and organisational turnaround.
In addition to his role at the Hospice, David is a Non-Executive Director at Liverpool University Hospitals, where he chairs the Audit Committee, and also a Non-Executive Director at Liverpool Women’s Hospital. He is also an independent member of the Audit Committee of the Muir Housing Association.
Lesley joined the board of trustees in October 2022. She has been working in the NHS nursing for 35 years, working across Cheshire and Merseyside in both community and hospital settings. She is passionate about improving quality and care for both health care workers and patients.
In her spare time she is very hands on, volunteering for festival medical support, particularly attending Glastonbury festival along side her husband and family.
Dr. Neil Fergusson joined the board of trustees in September 2017 after working as a consultant anaesthetist with an interest in intensive care at the Countess of Chester Hospital for 26 years. He retired from full time work in 2013 and part time work in 2018.
At the beginning of his retirement from full time work, he spent two and a half years volunteering in Nepal with International Nepal Fellowship treating people in isolated communities and helping set up a new Ear Hospital in Pokhara.
Neil is married to Hilary, they have three adult children and 2 grandchildren. They live in Barrow, near Chester. Neil enjoys running, walking and anything to do with mountains, he is a keen gardener and has a smallholding with a few sheep and chickens. Neil is delighted to be able to continue to use his knowledge to help support the excellent care provided by the Hospice.
Suzanne started her career in the NHS in 1987, and has worked across multi-disciplinary teams with clinicians, directors and various senior managers, and also in partnership with other statutory organisations, including Councils, the Police, and Fire & Rescue. She has worked across hospital trusts, community services, GP Practices, and various NHS commissioning bodies, and has sat on various Government working parties, representing the NHS, over the years.
Suzanne has a wealth of experience, in Information Governance, and has a LLM Master of Laws Degree in Information Rights Law & Practice. She currently supports the NHS digital & data programmes across the Cheshire & Merseyside Integrated Care Service, ensuring that patient data is processed fairly, lawfully and transparently.
Suzanne has been doing voluntary work since the age of 14, including 10 years general duty voluntary work at the Hospice.
Her NHS and voluntary work highlight the huge importance of confidentiality and protecting patient data in the workplace, as well as sharing data across partner organisations as appropriate. Suzanne is very passionate to use her knowledge, skills and experience at the Hospice.
Suzanne is from the Wirral, and now lives in Cheshire with her husband Peter. They enjoy live theatre, classical music concerts, cooking, and spending time with family & friends.
Dom is a dynamic strategic leader with deep expertise in visitor attractions, venue operations, and commercial growth. With a background in science, he moved early into the attractions sector, where he has built a strong track record in driving visitor engagement, revenue, and brand impact. As Chief Operating Officer at Chester Zoo, Dom leads all commercial and visitor-facing functions—including Operations, Brand & Marketing, Visitor Experience, and Strategic Development. His leadership helps keep Chester Zoo among the UK’s top attractions, generating vital income to power its world-class conservation mission.
Gary joined the Board of Trustees in August 2022. Gary started work after leaving school at sixteen joining Lever Brothers (now Unilever) as a laboratory technician. Fortunate enough to continue his education part time, he studied Chemistry and whilst working in the R&D team based in Port Sunlight was awarded a patent for his work. He then took the opportunity to move into manufacturing and after fulfilling a number of roles ended up as Operations Manager in one of the factories. He then moved into IT as European Service Desk manager prior to supporting the outsourcing of the service to a third party after which he was in a variety of global roles. These gave him extensive exposure to contract and vendor management and many opportunities to travel to Europe plus some more exotic locations such as Singapore and India. In May 2020 he retired from Unilever after almost 43 years of service.
His main interest now is centred around the assessment of football referees on most Saturdays, something he is passionate about as an ex referee himself. He also enjoys playing golf, and has also been involved in volunteering for golf events, the highlight being the Solheim Cup in 2019. Gary also decided he wanted to see more of the UK (and possibly Europe) and purchased a VW Campervan to facilitate his travels and new hobby.
Gary sits on the Information Governance and Health and Safety sub committees.
Liz was born and raised on the Wirral and attended Liverpool University Medical School; she graduated in 1985.
Her first job was at the Countess of Chester as a House Officer and then returned to a consultant post as a general surgeon with a special interest in Breast Diseases in 1998 and retired in 2020.
She lives locally with two cats. She is also a trustee for the Ursula Keyes Trust and likes to swim.
Laura was born in Chester and raised in Chester and the Middle East. She attended Southampton Medical School; graduating in 1998. After meeting her husband in the Bahamas, she continued her training in Bristol before moving back to Chester to be closer to her family. She has worked as a rural GP in the Chester area since 2005 and is a Freeman of the City.
Laura lives near Chester with her husband, two grown up children, two cats and a cockapoo. She is a keen gardener and enjoys reading, theatre and film.
Helen Watson is the Senior Partner and Head of Employment at Aaron & Partners. Helen’s work over more than 25 years has covered all aspects of employment law, drawing clients from a wide variety of sectors including those operating internationally.
Helen joined Aaron & Partners in early 2007 as Head of Employment Law and was the firm’s first equity female Partner. She was voted to be the firm’s first female Senior Partner in early 2026.
Over the last decade, Helen’s international network and practice has expanded significantly, and she now travels extensively to work with the firm’s global clients and partners. She has a wealth of expertise in international business.
Helen is a fully qualified Mediator, with over 15 years of experience and a wealth of success stories in this arena. She also leads a team of Workplace Investigators and acts as a Senior Executive Coach and Mentor, regularly delivering accredited workshops to board members and coaching executives to excellence in a variety of different fields, both public and private sector.
Helen is currently Vice-Chair of the International Advisory Group (IAG), an international legal and accountancy organisation with representation from over 100 regions worldwide.
Helen is also Chair of Theatr Clwyd, where she has most recently been responsible for a £50m+ capital redevelopment. She had previously successfully steered the Claire House Children’s Hospice £50k capital project in Liverpool and was Chair for the opening of the Liverpool Hospice. She is also an Ambassador for the North Wales Institute of Directors (having previously served as Chair for 11 years) and is a long-standing Chartered Director, holding several other Board Advisor and NED roles with Hospices, Schools, Universities and corporates.
Helen is also very passionate about a number of charities; she is an Ambassador and prolific fundraiser for Claire House Children’s Hospice where she was previously Chair for 11 years and is now a member of the People & Culture Committee for the Hospice of the Good Shepherd. She frequently takes on challenges to raise money for local causes and has personally raised over £250,000 in the last ten years.
Helen is a long standing and active member of North Wales and Chester Business Clubs and adviser to Bangor University People and Culture Committee and Abbey School in Chester.
The Board is responsible for making sure our Board of Trustees has the skills and experience necessary to effectively govern the Hospice. We recruit new trustees according to the needs of the Hospice.
We’re always interested to hear from people who feel they have the skills and energy to contribute to our ongoing success and who wish to put themselves forward as a potential trustee. For an informal conversation about the role, please contact our Chief Executive.
Richard joined the Hospice of the Good Shepherd in May
2026. His role is to support the
Trustees, who are all volunteers, in the delivery of their responsibilities in
the management, governance and oversight of the charity and to provide
leadership for the staff and volunteers who work for the charity.
Richard joined the hospice movement as the chief executive
of the hospice in Stafford in January 1999, prior to which post he held several
senior positions at the David Lewis Centre for Epilepsy, including Financial
Controller, Centre and Service Development Manager, and Acting Chief Executive. His background includes developing
information systems first in the NHS and then through a healthcare consultancy company.
He is a great believer in life-long learning and whilst
employed completed his PhD thesis in 1993 and his MBA in 2020.
Caroline joined the Hospice of the Good Shepherd in December 2017 as Director of Income Generation and is responsible for all areas of fundraising including lottery and retail. She also has responsibility for marketing and communications. It is Caroline’s job to ensure that we raise sufficient funds to ensure the financial sustainability of the Hospice and that our community know about the care we offer and how they can support the work we do.
Caroline has been fundraising since 1990 and has been involved in Hospice fundraising since 2000. She is passionate about the Hospice movement and has had personal experience of the difference Hospice care make to both patients and their families. Caroline has been a member of the Institute of Fundraising for over 20 years and a member of the North West Committee since 2007 and served as Chair of the North West for 3 years. In 2017 Caroline was made a Fellow of the Institute of Fundraising in recognition of her services the North Fundraising Community.
Claire joined the Hospice in August 2024 as the Director of Clinical Services. As the Registered Manager for the Hospice, Claire is responsible for the delivery of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led patient care. This is in line with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated activities) Regulations 2014. Claire ensures that our services meet and exceed the fundamental standards as set out by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Claire is also the Controlled Drugs Accountable Officer for the Hospice. It is Claire’s responsibility to ensure the safe management, governance, and use of controlled drugs within the organisation.
Claire is a Registered Nurse with extensive nursing knowledge, she has over 23 years’ experience, working in NHS settings. Claire has held various roles within the NHS, including working in General medicine, Endocrinology and Haematology. For 14 years Claire worked with the Specialist Palliative Care Team in North Wales, initially working as Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialist and latterly as the Lead Nurse of Specialist Palliative Care and Quality in North East Wales.
Claire holds a Master of Science Degree in Healthcare Sciences, with a focus on Clinical Leadership.
Claire is a values-driven leader with a deep passion for leadership that empowers teams and places compassion at the heart of care. Core to Claire’s leadership style is championing equality at end of life, ensuring that everyone regardless of background, culture or circumstance receives care that honours their values and wishes.
Yvonne Thurman ACMA joined the hospice in August 2023 as Head of Finance
Yvonne is a qualified accountant brings with her over 30 years’ experience working in finance. She has a background in both public and private sector including working for the NHS.
Laura has been part of the hospice team since 2011 and brings over 20 years of experience in HR, having previously worked with Cheshire Constabulary and Barclays Bank. Now leading the People and Development team, she is passionate about supporting colleagues, encouraging growth, and helping to make the hospice a great place to work.
Lisa joined the Hospice of the Good Shepherd in January 2023 as Director of Quality and Improvement. As our Patient Safety Incident Response Lead, Lisa is responsible for ensuring there are systems in place to monitor hospice compliance with standards set out by the Care Quality Commission and relevant legal frameworks. Lisa supports the overall delivery of effective and safe patient care in line with local and national priorities.
She has 19 years’ experience working in NHS settings, with 9 years working across various clinical governance roles including the Quality and Incidents Manager and laterally the Head of Complaints at Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. As a 1st class graduate of BA Hons Business Management and Leadership ascertained through work based studies, Lisa is passionate about the whole system thinking, to ensure our people have access to individualised quality care and treatment.
Justin is the Head of Fundraising at the Hospice of the Good Shepherd and is currently serving as Interim Director of Income Generation. Since joining the hospice in 2012, he has played a key role in developing and leading its fundraising strategy. In his current role, Justin oversees fundraising, retail and lottery as well as the hospice’s marketing. With over a decade of experience at the hospice, Justin brings deep knowledge and commitment to his role and helps to drive sustainable growth for the hospice.
