With a clinical degree and current working registration as a physiotherapist, a Post Graduate Certificate in Professional Coaching, and 30 years’ experience leading and delivering excellence in a range of public, private and charitable settings, Laura is passionate about people.

Her current role is Assistant Director at Leicester Diabetes Centre, a world-renowned centre which is a collaboration between University of Leicester and based in University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.  Here she leads the multi award winning teams of Eden HCP and working closely with the DESMOND and implementation Self management education teams. Her role has  a focus on Integration,  research, innovation and education.  Laura leads the delivery of the DUK Discovering leadership programme nationally.

 Spanning a diverse breadth of roles and organisational settings, with public and commercial expertise, Laura brings many years’ experience in corporate training and development; coupled with the compassionate leadership lens of a clinician. Put simply, she is passionate about patients and people, supporting and challenging them to maximise their individual and collective performance. She believes in strong values-based leadership to enable change and growth. 

Alison Barnes is a Diabetes Specialist Dietitian and Senior Research Dietitian, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Alison was the lead Dietitian for the DiRECT and ReTUNE diabetes remission studies at Newcastle University. She has co-written two remission programmes, one of which is commissioned by NHS England for delivery of the national Pathway to Remission programme. Alison currently leads ‘Waiting Well Diabetes’ a novel, dietetic-led NHS service in North East England for pre-surgical diabetes optimisation (recently awarded the Diabetes UK Nursing and AHP Research Award), and is a Senior Research Associate for the multinational, NIHR-funded My Hypo Compass intervention. Alison has spoken about diabetes remission and dietary management of type 2 diabetes at national and international meetings and conferences including the Diabetes UK APC, EASD, ADA, TREND UK, UKPDS and PCDS. She is an invited speaker at the 2025 IDF World Congress on Diabetes 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand. A graduate of the Diabetes UK Clinical Champions programme, Alison has lived with Type 1 diabetes since the age of 8. She has been a member of the QiC awards judging panel since 2018, and loves seeing the innovative and inspiring entries submitted each year.

Liz is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner at Guys & St Thomas’ hospital in London and has worked in diabetes for over 20 years, gaining experience across the acute and community setting. After completing an MSc in Diabetes at Kings College London, she has focused on inpatient management and leads a multidisciplinary inpatient service across two large hospital sites and specialises in perioperative care and oncology management.

Liz has facilitated collaborative care planning training for general practice with the Health Foundation and was part of a working group for GIRFT (Getting it Right First Time) who developed a pathway for emergency front door diabetes care. She is a committee member for the IP-JBDS, TREND and DISN group and facilitates a rotational training programme for diabetes specialist nurses new to the profession at Guys & St Thomas’ hospital. Current interests range from improving inpatient care for all, diabetes education for the non-specialist colleague, collaborative care planning and standardising perioperative care within a tertiary setting.

Jason Cheung is a Consultant Diabetologist and Clinical Lead for the Inpatient Diabetes Service at Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, a role he has held since 2019. His clinical and academic focus is on inpatient diabetes care, prevention of in-hospital diabetes complications, and developing innovative models to modernise service delivery.

Under his leadership, his team received the Royal College of Physicians’ Excellence in Patient Care Award (2021) and a Quality in Care (Diabetes) Commendation (2020). Jason currently chairs the Diabetes UK Professional Conference Committee and is a member of the Joint British Diabetes Societies for Inpatient Care Group. He is also spearheading national work on the sustainability and environmental impact of inpatient diabetes care, serving as a Green Champion for his NHS Trust.

As a Diabetes UK Clinical Champion and someone living with diabetes himself, Jason is a passionate advocate for ensuring high-quality, person-centred care for people with diabetes.

Dr Tom Crabtree is a Consultant Diabetologist at the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Trust with special interests including type 1 diabetes, young adults, transition, diabetes technology and gastroparesis. He was formerly chair of YDEF and an ABCD research fellow, and led on the publication of the data from the NHS England Closed-Loop Pilot.

I was diagnosed as type 1 all the way back in 1985. Since then, both of my kids have joined the club. After their diagnoses and attending a DAFNE style course provided by my local trust I became super engaged in finding out how I could improve my care, my children’s care and share that learning as far and wide as I could.

I’m an Omnipod 5 user and am very excited for how technology is changing treatment for our family. I love that HCPs are learning to look beyond BG numbers to integrate care into a long-term healthy lifestyle.

Dr Annie de Bray is a West Midlands Endocrinology trainee, DPhil candidate at Oxford University and 2023-2024 Chair of the Young Diabetologists and Endocrinologists Forum (YDEF). She is researching novel fluorescent probes to further diabetes research and has a passion for education and encouraging more doctors to join the specialty. On behalf of YDEF, she is proud to support the inspirational QiC awards to highlight the innovative and compassionate work of colleagues around the country

Anne Marie Frohock is Lead Paediatric Diabetes Dietitian with the Oxfordshire Children’s Diabetes team. She has over 10 years’ experience working in paediatric diabetes and is also Chairperson of the Thames Valley CYP Diabetes Network.  She has a special interest in sports nutrition and has established the Oxford Specialist Sports Clinic for adults and children with Type 1 Diabetes (which has previously been shortlisted for a QIC Diabetes Award).  Her breadth of experience working with youngsters and families living with diabetes drives her to be their advocate at local and national levels, striving to remove any inequalities in access to care, education, technology and outcomes.  Championing best practice and quality in care, she hopes that this inspires and motivates all healthcare teams to continue doing their best and better, to continually improve diabetes care for everyone.

Sarah Gibbs, a grandmother and patient representative for all things diabetes. I live with type 2 diabetes and since diagnosis have become immersed in diabetes with a thirst for knowledge and a need to raise awareness in other people. I believe the patient voice is one that should sit at every table as an end service user. I am a member of numerous patient centred groups looking at care and research of diabetes and equality in care provided and am a great believer that best practice should be celebrated and shared.

Working with multiple start up and SME organisations has allowed Sanjay to gain great experience in helping companies understand and matching their solution with market opportunities, providing insight and access to stakeholders, enabling solution providers to be informed and develop their strategy. The primary care consideration is to improve patient and system outcomes. With over 25 years of experience across the healthcare industry and third sector Sanjay utilises his knowledge, network and experiences to add value to clients working within multiple med-tech and digital health areas as well as therapy areas including Diabetes, Behaviour change, Neurology (Migraine), Dermatology, Respiratory, Remote patient monitoring and screening.

Outside of work Sanjay plays golf regularly. He is a Level 2 qualified swimming judge, whilst also a member of the organising committee of a golf society and volunteer at his local community.

Ros Gray is the Community Content and Information Lead with Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF), where she provides support, information and resources to the community as part of her role within the Community Engagement team. 

Prior to joining Breakthrough T1D in early 2025, Ros worked as a Diabetes Clinical Trainer, providing support and training to healthcare professionals and patients around the UK. Ros is a mum, is based in South Wales and has lived with type 1 diabetes for over 40 years. She has also been an active part of the type 1 diabetes community for several years, including being a speaker at healthcare and community conferences and events, as well as being a part of the TAD and ArT1st teams.

Catherine is a clinical pharmacist and independent prescriber and the lead clinician for management of Type 2 diabetes and CVRM at her GP practice in Topsham, Devon

Catherine is a primary care diabetes champion for the NHS England Southwest Clinical Network and is currently a module lead for the PCPA diabetes academy.

Catherine has previously been involved in a variety of Devon ICB diabetes projects and is passionate about upskilling primary care clinicians to holistically manage people with Type 2 diabetes.

Catherine originally worked in community pharmacy from 1995 to 2010 and has extensive experience in primary care having worked part time for the Medicines Optimisation team at Devon ICB (2003 -2013) and then as a clinical pharmacist and prescriber in general practice for the last 10 years.

Diabetes Specialist Dietitian/ NEEDS Clinical Lead

Adele is a Specialist Dietitian with over 14 years’ experience in Diabetes.  Current position leading the North East Essex Diabetes Service, which covers the whole Diabetes pathway across North East Essex and bordering areas, encouraging innovative and collaborative working across primary care, community and inpatient services. Experienced DAFNE and DESMOND educator, clinical interests include insulin pumps and new technologies, complex diabetes and diet and lifestyle personalised approach in diabetes. Enjoys research and audit, notable projects:

• Insulin pump holidays are they of clinical benefit? (DUK poster abstract)
• CLIMB type 2 diabetes education- a locally developed solution (DUK poster abstract and HSJ / QIC awards entrant), published in balance magazine and complete nutrition professional magazine.
• Insulin pump database- commended in QIC awards 2016
• BD UK Pilot study insulin injection techniques- published
• SPARTA glargine u300 real world study investigator and author
• Sanofi national Diabetes ‘Quality in Care’ awards, lead judge 2017-present
• Health care Professional Council UK- panel member

Debbie qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 1992 at Ipswich Hospital working in elderly medicine; this led to her developing an interest in diabetes. She joined primary care as a Practice Nurse in 1996 which included diabetes care as part of her job role. Progressing on to Lead Diabetes Nurse in Thetford. In 2019 Debbie joined Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital as a Diabetes Specialist Nurse Facilitator supporting Norfolk Primary Care Practices. During covid Debbie was moved to Diabetes Inpatient Specialist Nurse supporting patients in the hospital, being part of the team that won Excellence in Patient Care award 2021 and continued with that job role. She is also working in the clinics at the Elsie Bertram Diabetes Centre.

She is passionate about individualised care, the participation of patients in their treatment choices, patient safety and improving care.

She is a committee member of DISN UK, RCN Diabetes Steering Forum, Co-Lead of Norfolk Health Professionals Diabetes Forum, Committee member of Diabetes & Primary Care Editorial Board, former committee member of PCDS, part of a Changing Labs team with Diabetes UK which was tackling inequality. Debbie has been involved in regional diabetes education events, contributed to glucose meter research, and taken part in podcast on BMJ learning.

Edelle Irwin is the Community Content and Information Lead with JDRF helping to provide support, information and resources to the type one community. She is based in Derry, Northern Ireland and has been part of the community/voluntary sector for over 10 years, working with young people with disabilities/health conditions and their families.  

Edelle has been part of the Community Engagement Team at JDRF for over 2 years, previously establishing P.O.C.A (Parents of Children with Autism) support group in 2013, as well as the first youth club in Northern Ireland for young people with autism and their families. She also founded The T1 Club Children’s Diabetes Group in 2019, providing peer support for young people with type one diabetes and their families. 

Mother of 3 boys (including one young adult with type one diabetes and 2 boys with autism) Edelle is a passionate representative of people living with type 1 diabetes and other health conditions. 

Khizer is a qualified pharmacist with a diverse background spanning retail, hospital, and pharmaceutical industry roles. After earning a Pharmacy degree from the University of Huddersfield and qualifying in 2014, Khizer spent two years in retail pharmacy before transitioning to hospital pharmacy in Manchester. Over six years, he gained extensive clinical experience across specialties such as diabetes, cardiology and infectious diseases.

A career-defining moment came in 2019 when he joined the ICU team, playing a key role in patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic, working together with ward teams in a clinical capacity as well as developing real-time systems to manage sedative use amidst critical drug shortages.

In 2022, Khizer moved into the pharmaceutical industry, working in the medical team at Amarin, before joining Sanofi in 2024 in a Head Office medical position. His experience bridges frontline patient care and industry, with a focus on improving outcomes through innovation and collaboration.

Paula Johnston is the lead adult inpatient diabetes specialist nurse at the University Hospital Southampton, where she has been working within diabetes for the past 13 years.

She is a non-medical prescriber and has completed her Masters in diabetes.

She has been a genetic diabetes (MODY) nurse specialist for the past 8 years.

Paula is the Vice chair for the DISN UK group. She won the  QIC Diabetes Healthcare professional of the year in 2023 and Diabetes nurse of the year in the British Journal of Nursing awards this year.

Paula has had several articles published and she also teaches on the Diabetes MSC and non-medical prescribing modules at Southampton University.

She is representing the DISN UK group as a judge.

Gaynor Kebbell, RN, MSc is a Diabetes Specialist Nurse Practitioner and Facilitator for the Bath & NE Somerset Integrated Diabetes Service.

Gaynor was part of a collaboration which set up the first UK Renal Diabetes Inpatient service and the National Renal Diabetes Forum. It was working with patients with potentially preventable complications of diabetes which led to a move to primary care to focus on preventative medicine.

Gaynor completed an MSc in diabetes from Warwick University and is a Non-Medical Prescriber. She is also one of the Diabetes UK Clinical Champion alumni having participated in the leadership and community programmes.

In her role as Clinical Lead for Wiltshire, Gaynor led successful post covid recovery of a large community service which saw substantial reduction in waiting lists and increased recruitment.

Gaynor is passionate about teaching, working as occasional lecturer for multiple universities. She has published and presented on diabetes service integration and has provided diabetes education on social media and radio.

Having worked in both primary and secondary care, Gaynor is a pioneer of integrated diabetes care, and has co-led the Bath 3-D Integrated Diabetes service since 2015. Her current QI project is improving community care for Early Onset Type 2 Diabetes.

Lisa began her nursing career at Altnagelvin hospital in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1991 and gained experience within both primary and secondary care before completing her BSc (Hons) in Specialist Nursing Practice in diabetes in 2006 and Nurse Independent Prescriber in 2011.

In 2009 Lisa returned to Altnagelvin to begin her diabetes career as a Diabetes Specialist Nurse, providing care to inpatients, outpatients and antenatal services. She developed an insulin pump service within the trust and participated in a regional group to standardise criteria and documentation for pump services with NI. She was involved in setting up a DSN led antenatal clinic for women with gestational diabetes.

Lisa joined Ulster University in 2017 as a lecturer in nursing and Pathway Lead for diabetes. Lisa is the academic lead for post reg commissioned courses. Although now working in education she remains active within diabetes as a member of the Regional Diabetes Specialist Nurses Forum NI and an external advisor for TREND Diabetes.

David was Clinical Lead for Diabetes for the Sussex Health and Care Partnership from 2019-2024 and before this was Clinical lead for the South East Clinical Network from 2013 and is now medical head of service for specialist care at SCFT. He has been part of the Diabetes UK clinical leadership collaborative and twice nominated for Diabetes Healthcare professional of the year. He is Consultant in Diabetes at the award winning Diabetes Care for You service and Course leader for the Diabetes in Primary Care course at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. David has a strong interest in value based care,  health inequities, Clinical Leadership and innovation within Healthcare.

Orleas qualified as a registered nurse with a Bachelor’s degree over 25 yrs ago and has been working as a Diabetes Specialist Nurse (DSN) for more than 20 years in the NHS.

For the past 7 years she has been working as Lead Nurse and Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) for Diabetes and Endocrine Services at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Trust in London leading both the inpatient and outpatient services.

Since in post she has led on several service development and improvement projects including setting up the diabetes inpatient specialist nurse services.

Orleas is an independent prescriber and completed her MSc in Diabetes at King’s College London.

Her diabetes MSc research was an audit at her local hospital to determine if the Introduction of mandated education for health care professionals on insulin safety helps to reduce insulin errors.

In 2022 Orleas and her team were awarded as top 3 finalists nationally for the diabetes QiC insulin safety excellence award.

Orleas is very Passionate about diabetes care with her main interests being within type 1 diabetes including pregnancy, diabetes technology and insulin safety.

For the past 5 years, Phil Mynes has been the Policy, Public Affairs and Care Improvement Manager for Diabetes UK Northern Ireland. Phil leads on the development and delivery of Diabetes UK’s policy, political engagement and influencing activity in Northern Ireland to improve outcomes for people living with and at risk of diabetes in the region, and keep diabetes high on the political and health agenda.

Phil has worked in the charity sector for 10 years covering policy, commissioning and care improvement on a range of specialties including diabetes, palliative and end of life care, social care, family support, community development, and drug and alcohol use. Phil is passionate about using evidence-based policy and innovation to improve health outcomes and reform health services.

It is a privilege to be a judge this year and I can’t wait to see the entries. Best of luck, everyone.

Anuja is a Paediatric Endocrinologist, with CCT in Endocrinology in 2014. She runs a tertiary paediatric endocrine clinic at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals covering a population of approx. 70,000 Doncaster children besides taking referrals from Worksop and surrounding areas.

Anuja has been the lead for Diabetes at DRI since 2014, as well as research lead for the same period. She is the Diabetes network chair for the Yorkshire and Humber diabetes network.

Anuja and her team have actively participated in diabetes research and based on their success, they were successful in getting a designated research nurse for paediatrics for the last seven years at least. The team has taken part in commercial and non-commercial diabetes research projects.

Anuja has also been the Clinical Director for paediatrics at her trust since 2017 and leads a team of 15 consultants.

Karen graduated from the University of the West of England, Bristol with a BSc Hons in Biomedical Sciences. She began her career as a Biomedical Scientist in the NHS, specializing in haematology and blood transfusion, where she developed a strong foundation in clinical laboratory practice and patient care.

Transitioning to the pharmaceutical industry, Karen has built an impressive career spanning over 20 years, taking on distinct roles across sales and medical functions with a particular focus on diabetes. Since joining Sanofi, she has progressed through various positions, culminating in her current role as UK&IE Medical Head for General Medicines, where she leverages her extensive clinical and commercial experience to drive medical strategy and excellence.

Karen has played a pivotal role in evidence generation within Sanofi, contributing to numerous scientific publications and congress poster presentations. Her unique combination of NHS background and pharmaceutical expertise has enabled her to forge valuable relationships across the healthcare ecosystem, connecting industry innovations with real-world clinical needs and enhancing patient outcomes throughout the UK and Ireland

Becky graduated from Salford University in 1994 with an Economics degree and then undertook her Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma at Nottingham Business School. She joined AstraZeneca, spending nine years there in a number of roles including sales, management and training.

Joining Aventis (now Sanofi), Becky has experienced a number of commercial and medical roles, providing valuable experience and forging a number of relationships across the company, the industry and amongst key stakeholders in diabetes and in the NHS.

Becky has enabled Sanofi to support programmes such as PITstop, Insulin Safety Week, Hypo Awareness Week, Quality in Care Diabetes, Sanofi Cares and develop free apps for children with diabetes such as Monster Manor and Mission T1D.

Fiona has been a paediatric diabetes consultant since 2006. In her first consultant post, she set up a paediatric diabetes service from scratch, including an insulin pump service. She initiated a local paediatric diabetes charity and used the monies raised to take the children and young people on local activities and also residential activity weekends.

She moved to Wexham Park hospital in 2011 where the diabetes and endocrine service were modified and use of technology for patients with diabetes became the norm rather than the exception.

In 2021 Fiona moved to Evelina London Children’s Hospital to focus on her specialities, she is currently head of service for paediatric endocrinology and diabetes.

Fiona was one of the founding members of the national Association for Children’s Diabetes Clinicians and became the treasurer, setting up the initial account. She has taken up chair for the association, since May 2023, co-ordinating the annual conference and the guidelines group.

Fiona has been involved with the BSPED for many years. She was a member in the BSPED special interest group looking at the national paediatric DKA guideline, published in 11/2021. During her time working in district general hospitals (DGH) she was the DGH officer on the clinical committee. She was vice chair for the group looking at managing Adrenal crises, the national guideline was launched in November 2022.

Fiona became the treasurer of the BSPED in November 2023.

In 2022/3 she was a committee member for the expert topic NICE sensor augmented pump group which was then converted into a NICE Technology Appraisal.

Lynn Sawyer initially qualified as a dietitian in 1996 and has worked with people with diabetes since then.  Following competition of her masters in Diabetes she has led diabetes services in an acute trust and been instrumental in setting up insulin pump services.  She has also worked across the Medical Division as Clinical Lead within an acute trust.

She now works for the NHS England Clinical Networks across the South West of England leading on the All Age Diabetes Transformation programme.  Current work projects include working to care processes and treatment targets for people with diabetes, automation of the hypo pathway, establishing hybrid closed loop services, foot care peer reviews, preventing T2 diabetes in children, supporting regional health inequality and young adult transition pilots, working closely with clinical teams and ICBs to achieve service development leading to improved outcomes for all people with diabetes.

Hannah Syed is a diabetes specialist working in East Sussex. Hannah’s role spans across primary and secondary care where she works as part of the multidisciplinary team to improve outcomes for people living with diabetes. Hannah supports the diabetes whole care pathway through providing expert advice and guidance on medication optimisation within the Sussex integrated care system. Hannah is co-chair of the UKCPA Diabetes and Endocrinology committee and is a member of the Diabetes UK research steering groups. Hannah is passionate about achieving health equity in diabetes and sharing best practice.

I qualified with a Bachelor of Nursing (Hons) degree in 2002, with my first role as a staff nurse on the renal and diabetes ward, and quickly realised I knew nothing! A post-graduate diploma module in diabetes nursing soon followed to improve my skills and knowledge and fuelled my passion for all things diabetes.

I was fortunate to become a DSN in 2009, mostly as DISN at the time, and developing skills with ante-natal, diabetic nephropathy and insulin pumps and gaining independent prescriber status.

I have experienced primary care in a new role as a DSN for a GP cluster, supporting experienced nurses with complex diabetes management and mentoring those new to diabetes.

Education of patients and fellow HCP’s is where my interests lie. I am DAFNE and XPERT educator, and completed my PGCE in 2018 to aid with adult learning principles.

I am guest lecturer at Bangor and Glyndwr universities and co-ordinate quarterly study days for inpatient staff .

I have also completed Msc Diabetes Practice at Swansea University in 2020, and have been a prescriber since 2010.

I am now the Lead DSN for the Central area of BCUHB, leading a team of both primary and secondary care DSN’s.

Douglas Twenefour is a Specialist Dietitian, the Head of Clinical at Diabetes UK, and an Associate Lecturer at London Metropolitan University.

Douglas was a co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) joint working group which published the 2021 report on lower carbohydrate diets for adults with type 2 diabetes. With a passion for developing evidence-based guidelines and consensus, he co-chaired the 2018 Diabetes UK nutrition guidelines working group. He was also a member of an expert group of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), Diabetes UK and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) who developed an international consensus on the definition and interpretation of remission in type 2 diabetes which was published simultaneously across four international journals in 2021.

As a professional member of the British Dietetic Association (BDA), Douglas is also a committee member of the BDA’s Diabetes Specialist Group.