Who we are

Bec and Kristina

TwoCan has two co-directors - Bec Hanley and Kristina Staley.

Bec Hanley has spent the past fifteen years working to promote the involvement of people who use services in health care and health research. She was the director of the INVOLVE Support Unit for five years. During this time she worked in partnership with people who use services and professionals to develop policy and practice on involvement in research. She has worked with a range of voluntary organisations, the NHS and research organisations both in this country and in Australia. Bec has a particular interest in clinical trials, and works as an adviser to the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit on patient and public involvement. She has undertaken and published research on patient involvement in clinical trials.

Kristina Staley is an experienced researcher with a background in biomedical science. After gaining her PhD from Cambridge University, and working as a post-doctoral fellow in the USA, she moved into health and science policy working at the King's Fund and Sussex University's Science Policy Research Unit. For many years her work focused on involving the public in health policy debates and she gained considerable experience in making research accessible to the public. She worked at the MS Society to introduce PPI into their research programme. She is also the author of INVOLVE’s recent publication ‘Exploring Impact: Public involvement in NHS, public health and social care research’.

Bec and Kristina have worked together for the past nine years.

Our associates

Our associates come from a variety of backgrounds and work with us on projects where we feel their expertise adds value.

Gillian Fletcher MBE co-designed and delivered VOICES training (National Childbirth Trust 1999 and College of Health 2001) and co-wrote the supporting resource packs for user representatives in the NHS. She developed these packages into CancerVOICES with Macmillan Cancer Support and Hearty Voices for the British Heart Foundation. Working with Kristina she helped to develop training for the MS Society's Research Network.

U Hla Htay is a full time carer for his wife with dementia and a user of Mental Health services on behalf of his wife. He is an active Alzheimer's Society's QRD (Quality Research in Dementia) network member. He is also an active consumer commentator and editor of the Cochrane Dementia & Cognitive Improvement Review Group (CDCIG), Cochrane Collaboration; a Consultative (Ethics) Panel Member of Human Genetics Commission; and a member of the Advisory Group for Public Involvement (AGPI), MRC.

Carolyn Morris was diagnosed with cancer in 1999 and joined her local patient partnership group and a national patient led advocacy group. She has experience of user involvement at grass roots and national levels and as co–researcher on projects investigating the process and impact of user involvement. Carolyn previously was a careers psychologist and counsellor, working with disabled people on Clydeside and students and academics in Sussex, where she was Director of the Career Development Unit until early retirement.

Mary Nettle is self employed as a mental health user consultant. She has worked to develop better mental health services at all levels in the statutory and voluntary sector. She is a Mental Health Act Commissioner. She is chair of ENUSP (European Network of Users, (ex) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry www.enusp.org), and is a member of INVOLVE and the European Disability Forum’s disabled women’s committee.

Rachel Purtell is the co-ordinator of Folk.us, a project that aims to facilitate and promote meaningful and effective service user, patient and carer involvement in all types of research relating to health and social care across Devon. Rachel has an MA in Disability Studies (University of Leeds) and as a disabled person runs workshops and training events on disability equality issues for universities and voluntary organisations. She has project managed work for SCIE and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Mary Taylor is a Trustee of Rethink. She has experience as a carer and gives telephone support to other carers. She is a member of the NHS Research for Patient Benefit Programme, East of England Regional Funding Committee. Past experience includes the Management Committee of the People Project in Suffolk, which helps people develop confidence and use opportunities to influence health and social care services, and membership of a team that wrote a booklet for Suffolk Carers on “Confidentiality in Mental Health”.

Read about our values.