Action Mesothelioma Day - Friday 27 February 2009
Speaker biographies
Rt Hon John Battle MP (Leeds West)
John Battle is Member of Parliament for Leeds West. He is a member of the International Development select committee and chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Poverty and on Overseas Development. He has been a long time campaigner on Mesothelioma having held debates in parliament throughout the 1980s highlighting the campaign of the Armley Asbestos cases in his constituency. Most recently he held a debate on the issue of pleural plaques. John Battle was the Prime Minister's Envoy to the Faith Communities for six years until June 2007, during which time he worked to increase dialogue and cooperation between the faith communities in Britain. He has previously been Minister of State at the Foreign Office and at the Department of Trade and Industry. Before becoming an MP, he was the National Coordinator for Church Action on Poverty. John has had a long association with the June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund and has been a patron of the fund since its inception in 1997.
John can be contacted via his constituency office in Armley.
Dr Zsuzsanna Tabi
Dr. Tabi completed her early education in Hungary before studying for a PhD (1988) in Australia at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Canberra. After post-doctoral work in Australia and the USA, she came to the UK in 1997 to take up an appointment as Senior Research Fellow studying cancer immunology at Cardiff University. She was appointed Senior Lecturer in 2002. Her main research interests are in the immunology of prostate cancer, mesothelioma and ovarian cancer.
Dr Tabi now heads the second largest mesothelioma research group in the UK, based on research income. In 2007 she was granted the JHMRF Award to study the immune response triggered by mesothelioma cells. Dr Tabi’s study will help to find out whether a cancer vaccine can be produced against mesothelioma in the future.
Dr Tabi can be contacted at:
Senior Lecturer in Immunology
Department of Oncology
School of Medicine, Cardiff University
Velindre Hospital
Whitchurch
Cardiff
CF14 2TL
Email: Zsuzsanna.Tabi@velindre-tr.wales.nhs.uk
Natalie Doyle
Natalie Doyle qualified as a nurse in 1984 and is currently the Nurse Consultant for Cancer Rehabilitation at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London where she leads the multi-professional Rehabilitation Outreach Team. Natalie has over 20 years experience of working in a variety of posts within cancer care and general nursing. Her main areas of interest are cancer survivorship and the older person with cancer. Natalie is currently undertaking a professional doctorate in nursing. In October last year, Natalie came to Leeds to speak at the Patient and Carer Day sponsored by the June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund. She believes strongly in empowering patients to take control of their lives: “Anything” she says “that shows that you can live with cancer is a positive thing”.
Natalie can be contacted at the Royal Marsden Hospital:
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Fulham Road
London
SW3 6JJ
Email: natalie.doyle@rmh.nhs.uk
Marianne Tavares
Marianne Tavares was a nurse for over 20 years before moving to Leeds to develop the complementary therapy service at St. Gemma’s Hospice in 1999. Marianne practises massage, aromatherapy, Reiki and hypnotherapy, and manages a team of paid and volunteer therapists. Marianne also runs a Tai Chi and Relaxation group at St. Gemma’s. In the last 10 years the service at St. Gemma’s has grown to include an outpatient and domiciliary service, in addition to providing therapies in the inpatient unit and the day hospice. The complementary therapy team works very closely with the multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, social workers, allied health professionals and the spiritual care team. Marianne’s particular interest is in empowering patients and carers living with their condition, and in exploring the use of essential oils for clinical use.
Marianne can be contacted at St. Gemma’s Hospice:
St. Gemma's Hospice
329 Harrogate Road
Moortown
Leeds
LS17 6QD
Email: mariannet@st-gemma.co.uk
Laurie Kazan-Allen
For more than 17 years, Laurie Kazan-Allen has been the editor of the British Asbestos Newsletter (BAN), a unique publication which monitors asbestos developments across a wide spectrum of disciplines. Ms. Kazan-Allen is an adviser to the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Occupational Safety and Health.
She is also the Founder and Co-ordinator of the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS), an independent body set up in 1999 to campaign for a global ban on asbestos and justice for all asbestos victims. In 2008, she organized and/or participated in asbestos events in Egypt, Austria, Brazil, England, the U.S, Slovenia, South Korea and Hong Kong; the same year, she co-edited the monograph: India’s Asbestos Time Bomb.
The BAN and IBAS websites are accessible online, free of charge and constitute remarkable resources for students of national and global asbestos scandals.
Contact:
PO Box 93
Stanmore
HA7 4GR
Email: ban@lkaz.demon.co.uk
Website: www.lkaz.demon.co.uk
February 2009
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