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Siobhan Jones - Forum Chair

Headache Nurse Consultant (BSc Hons, NMP, MSc, ADvDip (CPD)

North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust

Siobhan started her nursing career in 2001.

After achieving a BSc in nursing studies in 2004 she landed her first registered nurse role on a busy medical assessment unit gaining a huge amount of knowledge, skills and confidence. From then on she has attained much experience in many areas of neurosciences and neurology.

In 2015 Siobhan was awarded the Non-Medical Prescribing Qualification (NMP) whilst working as a ward manager on a Neuro-Rehabilitation ward for brain injured patients. Working in this environment heightened her enthusiasm and drive to care for such patients in enabling and empowering those who had suffered severe brain injuries to return to some form of normal life post-surgery.

She began her next step of her career at Salford Royal in Manchester 7 years ago and over that time setup the Nurse led Headache service including treatment and consultation clinics. This rapidly growing headache service led to an increasing expansion into the community to form Greater ManchesterÃÛÌÒÖ±²¥™s first nurse led community headache service.

Siobhan was awarded an MSc in the Clinical Management of Pain and Headache from the University of Edinburgh in 2019, which helped gain vast insight into the world of research, especially into new migraine treatments. From this she successfully published her first journal article in the British Journal of Neuroscience Nursing with excellent reviews and which has been a platform for future publications. She also completed a clinical examination course at MastersÃÛÌÒÖ±²¥™ level to which has optimised her clinical skills in the assessment of patients.

She is the founder of CHAMPS (Chronic Headache and Migraine Patient Support) group which was set up in 2016 at Salford Royal. She also regularly presents at national and international headache conferences and headache nurse meetings.

Siobhan became a member of the ÃÛÌÒÖ±²¥ Neuroscience Committee Forum in 2019 and is extremely passionate about bringing headache to the forefront creating a structured approach to headache education and how we introduce and encourage new headache nurses to the field.

In May 2021 Siobhan was successfully appointed Headache Nurse Consultant at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust. She is looking forward to implementing and leading new initiatives for the way in which primary headache disorders are managed in Cumbria creating an exemplary service which may be replicated within the UK. This in turn will promote efficiency and improve patient outcomes.

Becoming the first Headache Nurse Consultant in the UK is a fantastic opportunity to be a trailblazer for other aspiring nurses or indeed all headache clinicians. She is highly driven in pushing forwards many other exciting initiatives for headache management in the future.

Email Siobhan.

Marie Austin

Lead Nurse - Neurology, Spinal Injuries and Rehabilitation Medicine

Institute of Neurosciences, Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Injuries Unit, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow

Marie joined the NHS as a Neurosciences Nurse in 2000. Marie has had several roles within the Institute of Neurosciences during her career including Staff Nurse, Charge Nurse, and Senior Charge Nurse within the Neurology services and Neurosciences Night Nurse Practitioner. In January 2020 Marie became Lead Nurse for the Neurology services at the Institute, the National Spinal Injuries and Rehabilitation Medicine at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow.

Marie is passionate about Person Centred Care and Quality Improvement.

Marie is an active member of the National Neuroscience Benchmarking Group and the British Association of Neuroscience Nursing Committee Member.

Email Marie.

Christine Cole

Christine is currently based at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (Harrow) as a epilepsy specialist nurse in the community. 

She started her nursing career as a nursing assistant for children with learning disabilities and have continued to work in the NHS to date. She qualified as a learning disability nurse and worked in that post for several years. She undertook further studies and gained a BA in Health Care Studies at Luton University, MSc in epileptology at King’s College and Nurse Prescriber at Metropolitan University. This enabled Christine to develop and gain further knowledge and skills to support patients holistically and be influential in improving their health care needs.

Christine was very proud to accept an MBE for Services to Epilepsy for Special Needs in 2011.

From 2017- 2024 she was employed as an epilepsy specialist nurse for Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust based in the community managing and treating the general population with epilepsy, as part of a specialist neurology nursing team. Her role was instrumental in reducing hospital admissions. This involved working collaboratively with Neurologists, GP’s, Integrated Health Team, allied healthcare workers, social services, and voluntary sectors. During this time, she gained the title of Queens Nurse (QN).

Christine's nursing career has led her to undertake numerous research projects and audits, and she has published a number of articles over the years concerning epilepsy and nursing care interventions through her work experience. These care interventions for patients enabled them to instigate evidence-based practice to improve patients’ care and to share good practice.

On behalf of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), she served as a committee member in the development and production of the guidance on epilepsies in children, young people, and adults from 2019 – 2022. The most recent NICE epilepsy guidance was published in April 2022.

Christine is co-chair of the London Epilepsy Nurse Specialist Network (LENS) a group set up in 2019 for Epilepsy Nurse Specialists who share their experiences to support high quality patient care and service improvement.

Mark Delabajan

Stroke Nurse Consultant, East Lancashire Hospital

Mark graduated from the University of Eastern Philippines in 2005. He started his career as a staff nurse in the Emergency Department at the National Children's Hospital in the Philippines before moving on to the Armed Forces Hospital in Wadi Dawasir, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In 2010, he relocated to the UK and initially worked in a busy nursing home in Loughborough.

By 2013, he had become a staff nurse in the Stroke Unit in Blackpool, progressing to the role of Charge Nurse/Stroke Specialist Nurse. In 2016, he joined the Acute Response Team as a practitioner before returning to stroke services to complete my ACP training.

After qualifying as an ACP, Mark worked within the stroke services at Blackpool and briefly served as an ACP in a community rehab hospital. Given his passion for stroke medicine, he returned to work as a stroke nurse consultant at East Lancashire Hospital where he also collaborate with other stroke clinicians across Lancashire and South Cumbria. Together, they streamlined the stroke pathway, ensuring the delivery of up-to-date evidence-based practices in the region.

Mark is also currently a committee member of the Neuroscience forum at the ÃÛÌÒÖ±²¥.  

Emma Edwards

Parkinson’s specialist nurse, Livewell Southwest

Emma has worked in the mental health nursing arena since 1993, qualifying as a psychiatric nurse in 1997. She has worked in a variety of roles in this field, before commencing her role as a community Parkinson’s specialist nurse in 2010. In this role, she ensures that people with the condition are optimised on treatments, as well as supporting the patient throughout their Parkinson’s journey. She also works within a wider multi disciplinary team.

Emma enjoys teaching and has taught on many conferences, usually about mental health in Parkinson’s. She is undertaking a Research fellowship, with her special interest being suicide prevention in Parkinson’s and is currently a committee member of the Neuroscience forum at the Royal College Of Nursing.

Hannah Smith