A State Registered Nurse (SRN. King's College Hospital,London) Orthopaedic Nursing Certificate (ONC. Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford) Carol worked in A & E for several years. After her two children started school she set up a successful business, designing and producing sportswear for schools, colleges and H. M. Forces.    Involved in a road accident in France in 1982 she suffered a fractured skull, severe brain trauma and coma. Flown back to the UK by Air Ambulance she was later diagnosed with   Narcolepsy & Cataplexy as a result of the injury. Medication now keeps her condition fairly stable.                                                                                                  She was widowed in 1987 while her daughter and son were still in education. She later sold her business and while her children were at university spent months at a time travelling widely. She was elected as a Parish Councillor in 1998. Later, as Chairman of the Parish Council, was instrumental in saving the village shop from closure.  There is much more to tell, as you may have gathered she has an interesting and varied background.

Until her recent move to Kent, among other roles, Carol was Chair of South Reading Patient Voice and in 2013 responsible for the 'Dementia and Elderly Care Conference' sponsored by the CCG. A Patient Partner at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, with a colleague, successfully campaigned for Dementia to be a module in the Thames Valley University Nursing course and for Dementia training to be firmly embedded at the RBH. When their Mothers both developed Dementia, finding it difficult for carers to obtain helpful information, they proposed and worked with carers and clinicians on the 'Dementia Handbook for Carers' in West Berkshire. She was a member of Reading Borough Council Carers Group

She then applied for and got one of the two newly formed lay member positions with NHS Thames Valley, became Co-chair of NHS Thames Valley Patient Experience Strategy Group then the overall Patient Experience Operational group, a member of NHS Thames Valley Oversight Board, and a member of the Oxford Academic Health Science Network Clinical Innovation & Adoption Team. She was also a member of the steering group for University of Reading Physician Associate Course.

She worked closely Health Education Thames Valley on the e version of the  'Dementia Handbook for Carers and Care Providers' writing a preface and the quote on the front cover  "Caring for someone is sometimes hard work but always a privilege" As part of the NHS Patient Experience Team she was involved in their commissioned report 'Patient leadership: Taking patient experience to the next level?' subsequently published by the Beryl Institute. She campaigned successfully for carers to be one of the Royal Berkshire Hospital current top three priorities.

She is an Honorary Lecturer (Teaching & Research) and a Doubleday Affiliate at Manchester Medical School.  An NHS Leadership Academy Experience of Care Partner, a member of NHSE Always Events National Advisory Group, NHS Horizons #Project A Falls Collaborative, NHSE/NHSI SE Region Talent Board Inclusion Group
National Steering Group: Maximising Leadership Learning in the Pre-Registration Healthcare Curricula, HQIP Service User Network and of course the Q community. She remains one of Health Service Journal's Top 50 Patient Leaders.

She is a confident public speaker and her talk at the King's Fund has been adopted by the Open University for one of their degree courses. She regularly addresses conferences on Co-Production and Patient Engagement and Involvement including Expo, Westminster Health Forum, IHI/BMJ forum and HC-UK.

She is passionate about Patient and Public Involvement, hates acronyms and 'NHS speak' wanting patient information to be easy to understand for everybody.                       A keen photographer, an avid reader and being intrigued by puffins has a tattoo of one above her elbow.