Public Affairs Officer – Jamal Baloch

Jamal has an undergraduate degree in Politics and Government, and a master’s degree in Constitutional Politics, Law and Theory. Before joining My Death My Decision, he worked for human rights organisations, political movements and as a freelance geopolitical consultant.

jamal.baloch@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk 

Medical Group Coordinator – Colin Brewer

Colin Brewer formerly directed the Westminster Hospital’s alcoholism unit and the Stapleford Centre. In 2015 he co-published the book “I’ll See Myself Out, Thank You”, in which he described conducting mental capacity assessments for six British citizens hoping to end their life in Switzerland. His forthcoming book “Let Me Not Get Alzheimer’s Sweet Heaven”, explores the dilemma of dementia and assisted dying. He has previously served as a committee member for the Voluntary Euthanasia Society (now Dignity in Dying).

colin.brewer@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk

Lead Campaign Commentator– Phil Cheatle

Phil worked as a research scientist before getting involved with the assisted dying campaign. The unpleasant end of life experience of his mother and aunt, who both suffered from dementia and other conditions, convinced him of a need for a change in the law. Between 2015 – 2019 he coordinated the campaign which My Death, My Decision is the proud successor of. 

phil.cheatle@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk 

Membership & Operations Officer – Ellen Day

Ellen is an architecture graduate with an interest in policy development and campaigning. She joined My Death, My Decision after working in a political role.

ellen.day@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk 

Campaign Director – Livi Elsmore

Livi has spent her career working on advocacy campaigns across a range of social issues. She currently manages a coalition of organisations campaigning to improve private renting.

Livi believes everyone should have the right to die with dignity, and that choice at the end of life shouldn’t be limited by a person’s wealth or resources. She has been pleased to see growing support for this issue in recent years.

livi.elsmore@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk 

Communications Officer – Kerry Hogan

Kerry comes from a charity communications background and has most recently worked on an award winning campaign to break the stigma of youth loneliness. She is passionate about human rights and doesn’t shy away from difficult but meaningful conversations.

kerry.hogan@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk 

Campaign Strategist – Carrie Hynds

Carrie works as a freelance editor and proofreader based in Brighton & Hove. She joined My Death, My Decision in 2016 and is passionate about changing the law to move assisted dying from the realm of criminality to healthcare.

carrie.hynds@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk 

Adviser on Disability – John Knight CBE

John Knight has a life limiting progressive disability and like the vast majority of disabled people in the UK wants to choose how and when he dies. He strongly believes in disabled peoples autonomy and self determination and that this should cover both how we live AND how we die. He hopes through MDMD to echo the voices of the majority of disabled people who are widely ignored, unheard and misrepresented in this urgent national debate.

His career has spanned the voluntary and statutory sectors including the Department of Health, Leonard Cheshire Disability and the Commission for Public Appointments. He held National Board level directorships of the Commission for Social Care Inspection (now part of the Care Quality Commission); the Charity Commission and the General Social Care Council. Additionally his public service has included the Magistracy, NHS Governance roles and Social Housing.

john.knight@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk 

Director of Development – Claire Macdonald

Claire Macdonald started and ran a chain of children’s nursery schools. She has been a founder trustee of a family support charity, an independent school governor and an Independent Monitor of one of Her Majesty’s Prisons. Claire believes in personal autonomy and that it is ethical and compassionate to legalise medically assisted death, for mentally competent adults whose suffering has become more than they can endure.

claire.macdonald@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk

Director of Religion – Stephanie McAlpine

Stephanie McAlpine has spent two decades supporting people and communities through life’s various stages. Her professional journey has included ITU nursing, craniosacral therapy, hospice chaplaincy and working as an End of Life Doula. She is currently completing a Masters in Death, Religion and Culture. She is passionate in advocating that compassion can be extended to all people at the end of life.

stephanie.mcalpine@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk 

Director of Finance – Gary Marsh

Born in 1959, Preston Lancashire, Gary obtained a degree in accounting and then qualified as a Chartered Accountant with BDO in Manchester. He joined the now BAE Systems in 1986 holding financial controller and finance director roles across civil and military aerospace divisions; then Thales in 2008, a French blue chip, where he held Finance Director roles in the UK until 2018. Currently a trustee for a North West of England based charity supporting people suffering from drug and alcohol abuse and associated mental illness.

He believes that citizens in the UK have gained new rights over the years, rights that should have existed in the first instance, and the right to assisted dying when a person has an incurable condition is one such right.

gary.marsh@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk

Director of Operations – Simon Menneer

Simon Menneer spent two decades working in Corporate Finance, after which he worked for Millwall FC and the London Development Agency before moving to Cornwall where he was until recently CEO of Cornwall Cricket.  Simon has been a lifelong believer in the right to choose the manner of one’s own death. This was reinforced when he watched his close friend Tony suffer terribly with late-stage pancreatic cancer.

simon.menneer@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk

Chair – Trevor Moore

Trevor Moore spent much of his professional career as a partner in a City law firm, followed by several years as a consultant and freelance speaker. In the course of his current work as a humanist celebrant he often meets people who are approaching the end of life.  That experience, as well as meeting grieving families after someone has died, has deepened his interest in end of life matters.  He has recently co-edited Words in Pain, the letters of a terminally ill woman from the early twentieth century described by The Times as ‘a right to die pioneer’. Trevor also serves as a schools’ panel member for the Faith and Belief Forum.

trevor.moore@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk

Campaigns and Communications Manager – Nathan Stilwell

Nathan is a History graduate as well as a communications and technology aficionado. He joined My Death My Decision at the start of 2022 after spending two years working for the Jo Cox Foundation and two years in Brussels at a political communications agency.

nathan.stilwell@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk 

Director of Diversity – Carmen Sumadiwiria

Carmen began working as a policy and advocacy professional in the humanitarian sector with NGOs such as Médecins Sans Frontières and the British Red Cross before retraining as a registered nurse. She qualified during the first wave of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and has worked in various NHS Trusts across London since.

She is interested in more open and honest conversations about how we can live and die well, with dignity and choice, and how we can include more people from every background in this important dialogue.

carmen.sumadiwiria@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk