Iain Armstrong - Trustee and Chairman

Iain is the Nurse Consultant in Pulmonary Vascular Medicine at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield.

He has been responsible for the management of the Pulmonary Hypertension Service in Sheffield since 1998 and involved in the care of patients with Pulmonary Hypertension since 1995.

Iain has been one of the main driving forces in the formation of the Association and the development of the National Specialist PH Nurses Forum for the UK.

In addition to all of his work commitments Iain has gained a Master Degree in Medical Science at Sheffield University. He is now studying part-time for a PhD on a taught Doctorate course at Sheffield University. He is one of our technical writers producing written information and website articles.

Kay Yeowart - Trustee and Secretary

Kay has been a Trustee and the Secretary of the charity since its formation.

During this time she has worked extensively on a wide range of projects and activities. Kay’s son, Lewis was diagnosed with PAH in 1998.

Tom Siddons - Trustee and Treasurer

Tom has been involved with the PHA-UK since 2001 and has been the treasurer since 2002. Tom has worked in the field of pulmonary hypertension since 1997 where he first worked on his PhD with Professor Tim Higenbottam at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield. During that time Tom was heaviliy involved in the clinical trial of all the current treatments for PH.

Since leaving Sheffield and completing his PhD Tom has worked in the pharmaceutical industry running clinical trials in the field of PH, in particular for Pfizer and Actelion.

Sue Townsley - Trustee

Sue has been a patient at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield since her diagnosis, with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, in 1999. Her PAH is being successfully managed by nebulised Iloprost, sildenifil, oxygen therapy and anticoagulants.

Sue has worked in the Media and PR department of a Government agency and uses this knowledge and experience to produce the majority of the Association's printed material. She is now a "Mature Student" currently studying Applied Arts at Coventry University.

Sue has recently moved to a bungalow, outside Coventry, with her husband Dan, son Daniel and daughter Maddi. Her eldest daughter, Natasha lives with her partner, Richard, and their young daughter, Millie-May. Making Sue and Dan very proud grand-parents.

Sue would like to find more time for other interests, but finds juggling her family, Uni and PAH a pretty challenging experience.

Tracie Pannell - Trustee

Tracie has been an actively involved member of the PHA-UK for many years rising to the challenge of becoming a Trustee.  Although recently bereaved, as Tracie sadly lost her beautiful and courageous daughter Leanne to PH very recently, Tracie maintains a responsibility for the message board and on line community.

Sam Khan - Trustee

Sam who lives in the London area joined the PHA-UK as a Trustee in 2002.

She was first diagnosed with PPH at Papworth Hospital in 1990 and is currently Head of Production for a confectionary company in the south of England.

Sam has a wealth of managerial experience and is putting this knowledge to good use by helping the Association with various projects.

Nick Ainger - Trustee

Nick is the Labour Member of Parliament for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire

He is very active in his role as an MP and is the Association's spokesperson at government level on all issues involving Pulmonary Hypertension.

Lately Nick has had a huge input into setting up an "All Party Committee" for PH in Westminster.

Patrons of PHA-UK

Richard Briers - Film/TV Actor

Richard is probably best known on television as Tom in "The Good Life", however he has appeared in too many other TV series to have space to list them here.

Richard has had roles in eight British films including Hamlet, Henry V and Watership Down.

Through his varied roles on TV, which include many children's programs, he has brought much family entertainment and humour into our homes.

Pictured on the right is Richard in his role as Hector MacDonald, the eccentric Laird, in "Monarch of the Glen"

Professor Sheila G. Haworth

Sheila is British Heart Foundation Professor of Developmental Cardiology at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust in London.

She set up the UK Service for the Care of Children with Pulmonary Hypertension in 2001. She has been carrying out research in Pulmonary Hypertension for many years, and heads a research team funded by the British Heart Foundation.

Sheila is very involved in educating the medical and nursing professions to increase awareness of the disease and to tell people about the new treatments now available for use in children. She speaks regularly at medical meetings throughout the world.

She is married and has three stepsons.

Derek Fowlds - Film/TV Actor

Derek is currently best known as Sgt. Oscar Blaketon (retired) in Heartbeat, a family time television police/rural drama set in North Yorkshire.

Previously he starred in Yes Minister as the character Bernard Woolley. Derek has also has leading roles in many other British television series from Inspector Morse to The Darling Buds of May.

Thirteen British films have also seen Derek have an important role.

Derek is delighted to be associated with PHA-UK. He is eager to learn more about the disease and hopes that his name will help raise the profile of The Charity and in turn help people with PH.

Professor Tim Higenbottam

Professor Tim Higenbottam was the consultant of the Sheffield Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic from 1995 until 2001. Since that time Dr David Keily has taken the clinic forward with increased patient referral and a new range of tests and increased support.

Tim was earlier at Papworth for 14 years where the concept of the Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic was born. Dr Pepke-Zaba who heads the clinic here, with Dr Nick Morrell as senior consultant, was a research fellow of Tim's and started the work of inhaled Nitric Oxide.

Tim is now the Global Clinical Expert in AstraZeneca R&D contributing to research and development of new therapies for a number of Respiratory Diseases. His particular focus is on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Valerie Singleton OBE - TV / Radio Presenter / Writer

Val is best known to all of us for her days fronting Blue Peter in the 1960's and early 1970's. Here she became one of the countries best loved and respected presenters and was known to millions of children throughout the world.

She then moved to the BBC's Nationwide current affairs program in the 1970's and has appeared in many programs since then.

Val has also been involved in several special event programs such as The Royal Wedding of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips.

Nowadays, Val spends most of her time writing about her world travels for the quality press. This has taken Val to many places far and near.

Val sincerely hopes to be able to help the PHA-UK when her very busy work shedule allows.

Dr Chris Steele

Chris first came to the nations attention in 1988 with his debut appearance on ITV’s ‘This Morning’ programme and after 18 years he’s still as popular as ever.

Chris is married to Monica and father of four children . During his 35 years as a family GP in South Manchester he was the first doctor to hold smoking cessation clinics in the NHS and went on to become an international smoking cessation expert.

Alongside his media work he continues to act as a freelance physician and has provided health advisory work to the Security Service, the Department of Health/NHS Direct and many others.

Professor Richard C. Trembath

Richard is Professor of Medical Genetics at King’s College London and Director of the National Institute for Health Biomedical Research Centre at Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

He became involved with the PHA-UK as a result of his research into the molecular pathology of inherited disorders which include studies into the genetic basis of pulmonary vascular disease.

Most recent and significant studies include the identification of genes causative of familial pulmonary arterial hypertension.