Our people.
Scientists, campaigners, and changemakers.
Meet the dedicated individuals who drive our work — combining professional leadership, scientific expertise, and stewardship, all aligned to prevent breast cancer and reduce risk for everyone.
Leadership and staff team.
Our team delivers the day-to-day operations, scientific research, public education, fundraising, communications, and more. Each person plays a vital role in turning our mission into impact.
Thalie Martini
CEO
Thalie has been our CEO since 2019. She has 20 + years of experience working in senior roles in the public and third sectors in the UK and Australia. Before Breast Cancer UK, Thalie was CEO of Magpie Dance, the UK’s leading dance charity for people with learning disabilities. Thalie has run several high-profile programmes: a national programme to transform care practice in schools for children with medical conditions, a major transformation project at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney, and numerous statewide public health prevention programmes for the New South Wales State Government, including a ground-breaking magistrates drug diversion initiative. Thalie is passionate about prevention and social empowerment. Having lost her mother to breast cancer in 2007, Thalie is committed to making breast cancer prevention a policy and public health priority.
Helen Liles
Chief Operating Officer
Helen joined Breast Cancer UK in October 2024, having worked for more than 20 years in senior roles within the voluntary sector in health, disability and domestic abuse charities. She has worked in a variety of roles, including programme and project management, finance, HR and operations, and service development. Previously, she worked for a national cancer charity, where she developed a passion for raising awareness about cancer prevention, early detection and sharing practical ways to reduce the risk. Helen is looking forward to contributing to the growth of the charity and support its vital mission.
Dr Hannah Moody
Director of Research & Engagement
Hannah joined Breast Cancer UK in 2023, having previously been an Assistant Professor at the University of Bradford. As Director of Research and Engagement, Hannah and her team drive our scientific research programme forward. In her former research career, Hannah mainly focussed on asbestos-related cancer, from which her passion for cancer prevention grew. She is enthusiastic about ensuring public/patient-centred approaches that have real-world impact in healthcare and has known several friends with breast cancer. She hopes to promote and improve the focus on preventing breast cancer.
Nick Marsh
Director of Fundraising, Impact & Communications
Nick has over 20 years of experience working in senior roles in the third sector in the UK and internationally. Nick has previously managed fundraising and communications programs at WWF, Shelter, Christian Aid and Amnesty International. Over the last few years, Nick has worked as a consultant supporting charities like The Samaritans and Y Care, and in his spare time, Nick has founded charities working with communities in Cambodia in Bolivia. As a father to three teenage daughters, Nick is acutely aware of the importance prevention can make to breast cancer and is delighted to be part of this wonderful organisation.
Louise Bowers
Head of Content & Communications
Louise is our Head of Content and Communications. She has a wide range of communications experience, having worked extensively with national and regional media to successfully deliver high-profile campaigns both in print and online. Louise has previously worked for the Big Lottery Fund, where she worked on a range of health and education funding programmes, including NHS 5-a-day, Healthy Living Centres, Breathing Places and the Peoples Millions. Louise is passionate about promoting the work of third-sector organisations and demonstrating the power of community-led campaigns.
Yetunde Bashorun
Finance Manager
Yetunde is our Finance Manager. She has a degree in finance and has worked as an administrator and project manager with various cancer charities in Nigeria and the US. Yetunde joined us as our Data Support Intern and has progressed to being a full-time Finance Manager. Since taking on her first position at a cancer charity in 2015, she has been actively involved in cancer education and advocacy, doing her best to raise awareness of the disease worldwide.
Lisa Reynolds
HR Manager
Lisa is our HR Manager. She is an experienced HR professional and supports the team in implementing processes and strategies to streamline our working practices to ensure our work is efficient and effective as possible. Having had friends touched by breast cancer, Lisa believes passionately in the importance of taking preventative action to protect our long-term health.
Kerry McGrath
Individual Giving Manager
Kerry joined Breast Cancer UK in June 2024 and has over a decade of fundraising experience having previously worked at Birmingham Hospice, Emmaus UK and Sport 4 Life UK. In previous roles Kerry has been responsible for managing campaigns and appeals as well as in memory, regular giving and legacy income streams and she is now is excited to apply her experience to help continue our work whilst getting to know some of our wonderful supporters.
Dr Kerri Palmer-Quinn
Science Manager
Kerri is our Science Manager. She joined Breast Cancer UK in June 2022. Her primary focus is providing scientific information, content and advice on the impact of environmental chemicals on breast cancer risk. Prior to joining the charity, she completed a PhD at the University of Aberdeen that was co-funded by Breast Cancer UK and Animal Free Research UK. Her thesis was entitled ‘Implementing fully humanised methods to examine how the endocrine disrupting chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) contributes to breast cancer development’. Kerri is passionate about understanding how low-level exposure to multiple environmental chemicals affects breast cancer risk; as well as whether exposure to these chemicals during critical periods of development (i.e., in the womb/ during puberty) contributes to the risk of developing breast cancer during adulthood.
Lydia Ferguson Ray
Senior Philanthropy Officer
Lydia is our Senior Philanthropy Officer and joined in April 2022, having decided to return to the charity sector after working at a law firm. Lydia specialises in our strategic partnerships and major donors. Lydia studied International Relations and Spanish at Sussex University and the University of Granada before working for an educational foundation focusing on health and wellness within underserved communities. Her experience within the charity sector helps us continue our vital work in striving to prevent breast cancer.
Troy Chandler
Senior Data Analyst & Platform Engineer
Troy is our Senior Data Analyst and Platform Engineer. He joined the charity in March 2023 and works on providing charity solutions, improving our reporting and developing our data tools. Troy has worked in the charity sector for five years, specialising in CRM management and data analysis. He’s keen to discover new ways to use our data to promote prevention, reach more people through our education outreach and encourage healthier lifestyles.
Grace Williams
Senior Communications Officer
Grace is our Senior Communications Officer, having joined the organisation in December 2021. She specialises in shaping and delivering both internal and external communications, ensuring our messaging is clear, engaging, and aligned with our mission. Before joining us, she worked in Digital Marketing, where she led and created on a range of diverse client campaigns. Her earlier experience includes Press Officer at the Old Bailey and Regional PR Officer for Brain Tumour Research. She holds a BA (Hons) in Multimedia Journalism. With creativity and a deep commitment to prevention, Grace plays a key role in amplifying our mission and helping to achieve our goal of preventing breast cancer for future generations.
Ellie Peer
Administration Officer
Ellie joined the team in March 2024 as our Administration Officer, providing support to the HR & Finance team, ensuring she manages the day-to-day operations and administrative tasks are completed where necessary. Ellie has been working in the HR sector for 2 years after completing her degree in Film and Television and discovering her love for organisation and admin. She is so excited to be part of a growing charity, and is dedicated to the prevention of breast cancer.
Rosamund Kelby
Public Relations Officer
Rosie joined in September 2024 and specialises in media communications, having previously worked as a writer, magazine editor and restaurant PR. After returning from a year of volunteer work in Japan, she is bringing her creativity and passion for prevention to the role of Public Relations Officer at Breast Cancer UK.
Hannah Groves
Digital Communications Officer
Hannah joined Breast Cancer UK as Digital Communications Officer in September 2024. She supports the Communications team in delivering impactful content to develop our digital presence. Her previous experience includes marketing roles across publishing and educational charities. Hannah holds a degree in English Literature and is excited to bring her passion for creative communications to advocate for breast cancer prevention.
Helen Curcher
Supporter Care Administrator
Helen joined Breast Cancer UK in June 2025 as our Supporter Care Administrator after working in a similar role at her local hospice for over nine years. Providing excellent customer service is her passion and she is looking forward to assisting our supporters, ensuring they feel valued and promoting the growth of the charity.
Erin Duffy
Finance Officer
Erin is a new member of the team, having joined Breast Cancer UK in March of 2025 as our Finance Officer. Erin has various experience in finance roles, and this is her first in the charity sector. After having lost a parent to a related cancer in 2022, the charity’s mission is sadly close to her heart, so she is looking forward to contributing to the growth of the charity.
Trustees.
Our Board of Trustees provides governance and strategic oversight, and ensures our organisation remains true to its mission, values, and integrity.
Ruth Freeborough
Chair
Ruth has over 27 years’ experience working for Ford Motor Company Ltd where she has held mostly sales and marketing roles. In her thirties, Ruth trained as a McTimoney Chiropractor – a technique that focuses on an holistic approach to musculoskeletal conditions, treating the whole body at each and every session. It was her chiropractic training that introduced her to the importance of treating the cause rather than the symptoms of disease – and she has since become passionate about a preventative model of health and wellbeing that focuses on the importance of diet and lifestyle as well as minimising exposure to environmental toxins. Ruth joined Breast Cancer UK, having lost her own mother to breast cancer when she was 19.
Nazia Tingay
Deputy Chair
Nazia Tingay graduated in Law and has been in Technology for over thirty years. She works closely with Marketing, Legal, Governance and controls to launch finance products. As someone undergoing cancer treatment for triple + breast cancer she is thrilled to be able to support the strategic goals of Breast Cancer UK to ensure we can reduce the incidence of breast cancer. As of 2024, Nazia is our Deputy Chair.
Clélia Froguel
Trustee
Clélia is a director of global health at Incisive Health, a specialist policy and public affairs agency, part of the Inizio group. She advises global pharmaceutical companies and global health organisations on public health policy. She is also a global health lecturer at Sciences Po Paris. Prior to joining Incisive Health, she spent five years advising African Ministries of Health on malaria and child maternal health.
Clélia is a management consultant by background, having worked for several years in a top UK consulting firm (EY), specialised in health policy and strategy. Clelia uses her experise to advise Breast Cancer UK on how best to engage with policymakers to drive policy change and improve patient outcomes.
Dr Saleem Azeem
Trustee
Saleem is the Clinical and External Director for the Daisy Charity Appeal’s Molecular Imaging Research Centre, Hull leading in the initiation and expansion of the clinical and research imaging at the centre. A clinical oncologist with expertise in molecular imaging and its application to support anti-cancer therapy development, he served as Honorary Consultant in Clinical Oncology at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, specializing in lung cancer, and as Reader at Hull York Medical School until December 2024. Previously, he directed and set up the translational imaging oncology programme at the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Molecular Imaging Centre at the Hammersmith Hospital, London, served as Head of Oncology at Imanova, a joint venture of three London Medical schools (UCL, KCL, Imperial) and MRC and Invicro, a Konica Minolta company at the Hammersmith Hospital, London and as an Honorary Consultant in Clinical Oncology at the Christie Hospital, Manchester. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Saleem is passionate about the importance of maintaining and passing on a safe environment to future generations.
Lotte Spencer
Trustee
Lotte Spencer is a seasoned Consumer Marketing leader with over 20 years of experience in tech and telecoms, having worked at Spotify and Three UK on global marketing campaigns. Lotte holds a B.A. in Human Sciences from Oxford and won the Wilma Crowther Prize for her final honour school dissertation. Lotte was diagnosed with triple-positive breast cancer in 2020 and was treated successfully over 18 months. Now as a breast cancer survivor, Lotte is passionate about ensuring as many women as possible understand the risk factors for breast cancer and can make informed choices to reduce their risk.
Margot Black
Trustee
Margot is an experienced fundraiser having held positions at universities and cultural organisations in the UK and Italy. She currently works at the British Museum, and has held fundraising roles at The Courtauld Institute of Art and the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice. Margot lectures on Masters programmes at the European Institute of Design in Venice, teaching fundraising principles and strategy. Margot has a family history of breast cancer and strongly believes that promoting prevention will lead to fewer people being affected by the disease in the future.
Mark Jarvis
Trustee
Mark has over 35 years’ experience in banking and finance most recently at EY where he was Group CFO for Transactions. Mark has worked and lived in many cities around the world having spent 12 years in Moscow and 3 in Hong Kong. Mark has had prior experience in working with charities both in Moscow and the UK and brings to Breast Cancer UK a wealth of connections in the Corporate world. Mark joined Breast Cancer UK having lost his own mother to breast cancer when he was 16.
Professor Chris Twelves
Trustee
Chris is a Professor of Clinical Cancer Pharmacology and Oncology at the University of Leeds and a medical doctor, who has been a consultant treating people with cancer for over 30 years. He has had a particular interest in new drug development and clinical pharmacology; his clinical practice has been treating people with colorectal and breast cancer. Chris has published almost 300 papers in journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Journal of Clinical Oncology and BMJ as well as speaking at innumerable national/international meetings. He has also edited, or contributed to, several books including ones on early phase clinical trials (one of was translated into Chinese). For many years Chris was led the Section of Cancer Research at the University of Leeds, was Deputy Director of the CR UK Leeds Centre and led the CR UK Leeds Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre. For 10 years he has been Director of the NIHR Leeds Clinical Research Facility, which delivers early phase and experimental medicine trial at 5 sites across Leeds that was awarded over £10 million funding in 2022. Away from work, Chris is the family cook and enjoys travelling both for work and pleasure, spending as much time as possible with his family in Italy; he lives just outside the city walls in York.
Our scientific review panel.
Our independent science panel safeguards the quality and rigor of our scientific work, advising on grant applications, reviewing literature, and ensuring our findings are underpinned by the best available evidence.
Dr Aleksandra Buha Đorđevic
Science Panel Member
Dr Aleksandra Buha Đorđevic is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy University of Belgrade and a European Registered Toxicologist. Her research primarily investigates the impact of environmental contaminants, focusing on endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and their effects on health. Through her work, Dr Buha Đorđevic seeks to enhance understanding of how chemical exposures influence disease processes such as breast cancer.
Dr Giulia Grimaldi
Science Panel Member
Dr Giulia Grimaldi is Assistant Professor in Physiology and Metabolic Biochemistry at the University of Bradford. Her research interests focus on targeting post translational modifications in different diseases, including breast cancer. She is also developing multi-organ microphysiological systems as drug testing platforms.
Dr Isabel Pires
Science Panel Member
Dr Isabel Pires’s research focuses on characterising cellular signalling pathways associated to hypoxia and their exploitation for therapeutic benefit, with a particular emphasis on improving response to radiotherapy. Isabel did her PhD at the University of Manchester/CRUK Manchester Institute with Professor Caroline Dive. She then moved to the University of Oxford for a postdoc in Professor Ester Hammond’s group at the CRUK/MRC Institute for Radiation Oncology. There Isabel became interested in how hypoxic biology leads to alterations in cellular behaviour, such as increased genomic instability, resistance to therapy, and increased metastatic potential. She then moved to the University of Hull as a lecturer and then later a senior lecturer, where she continued her interest in hypoxic biology and radiobiology. In 2023 her group moved to the University of Manchester, where is continues her work on hypoxia biology.
Dr Leanne Livsey
Science Panel Member
Dr Leanne Livsey is a Lecturer in Physical Activity and Health Sciences at Leeds Beckett University. Her research interests focus on exploring the factors influencing physical activity behaviour across diverse populations, with a particular emphasis on breast cancer patients and survivors. Other research and teaching related activity which Dr Livsey is involved in focus on examining the role of lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, in the prevention and management of diseases, in particular breast cancer.
Dr Nicolò Battisti
Science Panel Member
Dr Nicolò Matteo Luca Battisti is a medical oncologist working in the Breast Unit of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, where he is also Clinical Lead of the Senior Adult Oncology Programme. Dr Battisti’s main clinical and research interests are breast oncology and geriatric oncology.
Dr Oskar Karlsson
Science Panel Member
Dr Oskar Karlsson is an Associate Professor in Toxicology at Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, Sweden. His research combines experimental model systems, computational toxicology, omics tools, and epidemiological research to investigate the effects of the exposome, including pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting chemicals, on human health. One focus of his work is understanding the impact of environmental exposures on breast cancer development and progression.
Dr Pedro Beltran-Alvarez
Science Panel Member
Dr Pedro Beltran-Alvarez is a Senior Lecturer in Health and Climate Change at the Hull York Medical School, University of Hull, and a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health. His research focuses on the impact of environmental change on health, including water pollution with pharmaceuticals and its effects on health. Taking a biochemistry approach, he uses a range of human disease models, including breast cancer and brain tumours, to investigate the mechanistic basis of health and disease, the impacts of environmental change, and novel treatments and therapeutic approaches.
Dr Sarah McGarrigle
Science Panel Member
Dr Sarah McGarrigle is a Research Project Manager in the Breast Care Unit, St James’s Hospital and Adjunct Assistant Professor in Trinity College Dublin. Her main research interest is in the field of hereditary and familial breast cancer. Within this space, she leads and collaborates on projects aimed at investigating risk prediction, lifestyle factors as risk modifiers and shared decision-making in this high-risk group.
Dr Shelly Coe
Science Panel Member
Dr Shelly Coe is a Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and a registered nutritionist, with a background in research into long-term conditions and healthy ageing. She has researched the impact of diet on symptom management in people with cancer undergoing treatment and has an interest in cancer-related malnutrition, specifically in those who are overweight and also in prehabilitation.
Professor Paul A. Fowler
Science Panel Member
Paul Fowler is a Professor of Translational Medical Sciences at the Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen (Scotland). His research focuses mainly on fetal development in humans and in animal models. This work aims to understand how environmental and maternal lifestyle factors, especially exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals, lead to impaired health and function.
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