Cara Crisp has been a part of the Crohn's & Colitis UK Nursing Programme since 2019.

Learning from other departments Gini has completely reviewed her Trust advice line, allowing patients direct access by phone, so patients don’t need to leave massages, but can speak to the specialist nursing team directly. She is the first Crohn’s & Colitis UK nurse specialist to have completed the MSc pathway and is staying in the programme to join the RCN Credentialing pathway.

Heather is a Clinical IBD Nurse specialist based at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital who has now merged with Poole hospital to become University Hospitals Dorset. Heather started the IBD service in 2004 and is constantly learning to develop and improve outcomes for patients. Heather also performs flexible sigmoidoscopy for patients in a relapse needing urgent review and a change in management. Heather is proud to be a nurse and feels it has been a privilege to help patients manage their IBD.

Jenna has developed pathways with the Trust endoscopy department to ensure quick and effective access to the IBD nursing service and early treatment for those newly diagnosed.

Kay Greveson is an IBD Advanced nurse Practitioner working at The London IBD clinic, London. Kay has worked as an IBD nurse for 17 years and has a passion and dedication for IBD. Kay has also founded a website and charity for travellers with Crohn's disease and Ulcerative Colitis with the aim of providing personalised care to improve life with IBD. 

Lucy is an IBD Nurse Specialist at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital and has been part of the IBD Team since 2017. Lucy’s previous experience in delivering chemotherapy and biologic therapies provided an insight into the patients experience of receiving medications which she draws on when counselling patients for medication therapies. As a key member of the team and a qualified prescriber, Lucy has been involved in research, audits and updating IBD treatment pathways to ensure patients receive high quality care. 

Mary Brennan has been a part of the Crohn's & Colitis UK Nursing Programme since 2019.

Rachel set up ground breaking nurse led pathways and clinics for patients with suspected IBD and since joining the programme has started ‘HOT’ clinics for patients requiring urgent advanced assessment. She has successfully completed RCN ANP IBD credentialing.

Sarah York has been working in IBD at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust since 2003. She is now a Consultant Nurse who is committed  to continually improving her theoretical and clinical knowledge. She is passionate about providing high-quality, evidence based care and encourages her team to strive for excellence and put the patient at the centre of everything they do.

Susie Wen is the Lead IBD Clinical Nurse Specialist at Barnet & Chase Farm Hospitals in London. Susie is passionate about IBD care to her patients and the service improvement for the local IBD population.

Susie is now an IBD ACP after completing her MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice in September 2023. Susie will continue to develop her team and the service by using the knowledge and skills acquired from her master's study.

Susie is proud to be a Crohn’s & Colitis UK Specialist Nurse and collaborating with them in supporting her IBD patients. 

Vida has been practising as an IBD nurse specialist since 2010. She is currently the lead nurse for the Royal Devon IBD service and an Exeter IBD & Pharmacogenetics Research Group member. She is passionate about research and improving services, is a non-medical prescriber, has a post-graduate certificate in gastrointestinal disorders and IBD and has recently completed a Master’s degree in advanced clinical practice. She is co-chair of the Southwest Peninsular IBD Nurse Network (SPINN) and sits on the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) IBD committee. In 2019, she became a Crohn’s & Colitis UK Nurse Specialist. She was a member of the first cohort to be supported to develop their advanced practice as part of a new nurse specialist programme created to ensure everyone has access to high-quality, sustainable IBD care.

Kasia Stegienta is an IBD nurse specialist at the Homerton Hospital in North London and also works as a nurse endoscopist, aiming to improve patient centred care in endoscopy. Kasia loves her job, as it allows her to combine her knowledge and interests with her previous education and skills.

Kerry Robinson has been an IBD nurse specialist at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield since 2003. Kerry has developed the service, so now it has a team of nine nurses; and is passionate about driving up care standards and actively takes a lead on developing the service.

Lisa Critchley is an IBD nurse specialist at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. Lisa has been fundamental in the development of an IBD transition service between Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and the Royal Liverpool. This newly re-vamped service is the first of its kind in the Northwest of England.

Tina Law is the senior IBD nurse specialist at Warrington Hospital and has worked as an IBD nurse specialist for 15 years. Tina is passionate about sharing knowledge, working collaboratively and engaging patients in their care.

Kay Crook is a paediatric gastroenterology nurse specialist at St Mark’s & Northwick Park hospitals in North London. She is the second paediatric nurse on the Crohn’s & Colitis UK Nurse Specialist programme. Her current post was developed to incorporate paediatrics into the IBD nursing service. Kay feels the basic knowledge and treatment is the same for both adult and paediatric nurses, although the nursing concept of family centred care is important in paediatrics, with emphasis on growth and puberty and using nursing skills when managing patients and their families.

Beverley has been the Lead IBD Nurse at Kingston Hospital since 2020, following a six-year IBD CNS post at Frimley Park. She is a qualified independent prescriber, with an MSc in Advanced Practice. Her main interests revolve around service improvement and career development in the ever-changing world of IBD. Career highlights include being nominated for a Parliamentary Award for commitment to caring for patients in the armed forces, and the development of an endoscopy algorithm to help streamline treatment pathways for both newly diagnosed patients and those who have been diagnosed and need treatment at the time of procedure (available on the IBD UK website). She currently leads the new diagnosis and pregnancy nurse-led clinics at Kingston Hospital.

Pearl Avery is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner at St Mark’s Hospital and has had an interest in Gastroenterology since qualifying in 2005. She is passionate about improving patient experience and outcomes, with a strong interest in digital health. She is the recipient of the British Journal of Nursing award in 2018 for Gastro/IBD Nurse of the year, and a successful applicant to the HEE/NIHR Bridging Award and NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme. Pearl also works one day weekly at a Wyke Regis and Lanehouse medical center as an ANP. She is currently undertaking a PhD and is the Nurse Representative for the British Society of Gastroenterology IBD Section and Clinical Research Group.

Lynn has been an IBD Nurse Consultant at Wirral University Teaching Hospital for the past 6 years and an IBD Nurse Specialist at the Countess of Chester Hospital for 14 years prior to this. Excited to be part of the Crohn's & Colitis UK credentialling programme, she is keen on working towards improving the patient journey with a particular focus on self-management. 

Susan Cowperthwaite started as a Healthcare Assistant at the age of 21, working within Gastro Outpatients and then later the Endoscopy Unit. She completed her nuse training in 2011, and ten years later became an IBD Clinical Nurse Specialist in 2017. Fast forward to the present day, she is now the Lead IBD Clinical Specialist Nurse at Southend Hospital, with an MsC in Advanced Nursing Practice. She runs weekly Rapid Access Clinics and coordinates the support group with the help of her IBD patients. 

Bridgette Fraser is an IBD Specialist Nurse Practitioner working as the Lead Nurse at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, She's been working in IBD since 2014. Previous to that, she worked in Endoscopy and Main Theatres. She has always had a passion for patient care and strives every day to advocate for her patients in ensuring everyone has a voice and gets the care they deserve. 

She's really excited for this opportunity to work with Crohn's & Colitis UK to provide her patients with better care and improve their lives.

Dayna Tulloch is Lead IBD Clinical Nurse Specialist for Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth. She is passionate delivering great care for IBD patients and creating improvements for her service team.

She is looking forward to learning from Crohn's & Colitis UK's community of specialist nurses, with the aim of developing her professional interests in research and service advancements. She is super excited to learn and improve her knowledge and have a community to learn from.

Eby Nellikunnil is an IBD Specialist Nurse based at Hampshire Hospitals, Basingstoke. He is interested in the multidisciplinary biopsychosocial approach to adult IBD care.

Grace Baird joined the Crohn;s & Colitis UK Nurse Specialist programme in 2024.

Louise Smith is an IBD nurse Specialist at Leighton hospital in Crewe. She commenced her role part time 19 years ago, when she set up and developed the service, gradually increasing her hours to full time. From January 2023, her team will have 3 IBD nurses. She has developed herself professionally throughout her career and is very grateful to be sponsored by Crohn's & Colitis UK for her MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice.

Dominic Devine is a IBD Clinical Nurse Specialist at North Tyneside General Hospital in the Northeast of England.

Dominic has been providing care for those with Crohn’s and Colitis since 2009 in a variety of settings including Acute Medicine, Endoscopy and later becoming an IBD Nurse Specialist in 2021. He proudly joined the programme in 2023.

Tracey Tyrrell is an IBD Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) with fifteen years of experience working in the IBD Service at St. Mark’s Hospital. Over the last four years, Tracey has been part of quality improvement projects including the set-up of the community IBD Nurse and development of the St. Mark’s IBD Flare card.

Tracey finished her Master of Science Professional practice in nursing in 2020, completing her dissertation on the set up of GP IBD Advice lines. Tracey is looking forward to being part of CCUK IBD Nursing Programme.

Grace Baird has been an IBD nurse since 2019, however, has worked their entire nursing career in Gastroenterology, where here passion lies. Since becoming an IBD nurse, she has strived to improve and grow her service in addition to improving her own knowledge, completing many qualifications including: examination, diagnostics and non-medical prescribing. She is particularly passionate about the psychological and social aspects of IBD care that really make an impact on people's lives and she is excited to start her Master's dissertation, which will explore the same. She very proud to be a part of the programme and cannot wait to work closely with Crohn's & Colitis UK.

Michelle is an IBD Clinical Nurse Specialist working at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust. She has been part of the IBD nursing team since 2021 and prior to her current role worked in endoscopy, also gaining experience in colorectal surgery and stoma care. She is extremely passionate in making sure that patients with IBD receive safe, consistent, high quality and personalised care as set out in the IBD standards. Michelle is constantly learning and developing within her role to improve the service for her patients. She is looking forward to working more closely with Crohn's & Colitis UK and feels privileged to be given the opportunity to be part of the nursing programme.

Vikki Garrick is the first Nurse Consultant in Gastroenterology in the Royal Hospital for Children and has held this role since 2021. She was an IBD Nurse Specialist for 16 years and set up the IBD Nurse Service in the Royal Hospital for Children in 2006. She is a longstanding proponent of MDT working in improving outcomes for IBD patients and has a particular interest in the management of adolescents and young people with IBD. Vikki is delighted to be part of the collaboration between Crohn’s & Colitis UK and the RCN, having been a supporter of both for many years.

Natalia Fumis is an IBD nurse specialist and nurse endoscopist at University Hospital Llandough. Natalia feels fortunate to be able to diagnose patients, start their treatment and be their point of contact managing their care. She assesses disease activity and alters treatments as needed, and runs nurse led clinics and assesses patients over the telephone on a daily basis. She provides a person centred, seamless service, which has shown to have great impact on patient outcomes.

Diane is the Lead IBD Nurse Specialist and Clinical Endoscopist at Wrexham Maelor, enjoying the variety of both roles with a keen interest in improvements to diagnosis, information provision, personalised care, and patient self-management. She completed her MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice in 2018 and credentialed through the RCN Pathway of the Crohn's & Colitis UK Nurse Specialist Programme in 2020.

Iola has been an IBD clinical Nurse Specialist at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, North Wales since 2000 - seeing a huge exponential rise in patient numbers. She is very passionate about the service her patients receive, and constantly strives to improve this. She was successful in achieving her MSc in Advanced Nursing Practice (ANP) in 2018. Her professional interests include research, PIFU, streamlining services and improving the advice line for patients.

Gaz is Lead Nurse for Gastroenterology based at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport. He started working as an IBD Clinical Nurse Specialist in 2011, helping establish a Nurse-Led Telephone Clinic for follow-up patients. He is a Nurse Prescriber and holds an MSc in Professional Nursing Practice. Currently, his role involves management of the nurse-led Gastroenterology and Medical Ambulatory Care Unit, which treats all gastroenterology and medical conditions including acute IBD reviews and administration of biological therapies. He continues to undertake face-to-face clinics for new and follow-up patients with IBD.

Gayle Martin is an IBD nurse specialist in Ulster Hospital and our first Crohn’s & Colitis UK Nurse Specialist in Northern Ireland. Gayle has worked hard to expand the nursing service in her hospital.