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 

Senior Political Officer – Dehenna Davison

Dehenna joined My Death My Decision in 2024, after a career in frontline politics.  Formerly a Member of Parliament and Government Minister, she has coordinated a number of healthcare and social justice campaigns, including on lobular breast cancer care. She brings her considerable experience of Westminster to MDMD’s campaign for a compassionate assisted dying law.

dehenna.davison@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 

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 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

Chair, 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

Dr. Graham Winyard CBE

Dr Graham Winyard CBE is a public health physician whose career included six years as Medical Director of the NHS.  His commitment to legalising assisted dying began with the experience of his first wife, Sandy’s death from cancer in 2002.  He has served on the Boards of Dignity in Dying and Healthcare Professionals for Assisted Dying before joining My Death, My Decision to campaign for laws which recognise the plight of those who seek relief from intolerable suffering but who would not meet the strict eligibility criteria advocated by those organisations.

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 

Director – Dr. Jan Whitby

Jan is a medical microbiologist / molecular virologist with expertise in health and disease, infection control, molecular genetics and research.  She has clinical expertise, gained from many years of active involvement in the NHS, research and biomedical research funding.

Her career involved working as a senior level national Government official in the Chief Scientist’s Group and as Head of Rabies, U.K.  She then transferred these skills to funding research for a global charitable organisation.

Jan has been a lifelong believer in the right to die well and of the need to change the law to enable choice and dignity in the dying process.  This was strongly enforced when she watched both her mother and her best friend die in terrible pain / anguish.  

jan.whitby@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk

Director – David Whitby

David founded a business development consultancy in 1992, focused on oil and chemical markets and products. He has provided services to numerous companies around the world. Prior to that he worked for BP for 22 years in various management roles in research, development and corporate innovation.
He believes that everyone should be free to choose how their lives end, whether with a safeguarded medically assisted death or with palliative care. This right to choose should be available for mentally competent adults who are either terminally ill or suffering intolerably from an incurable condition.

david.whitby@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk

Director – 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

Anjela has a background in operations, HR, and executive support across the tech and non profit sectors. A warrior for operational order, she keeps systems ship-shaped, ensuring efficiency behind the scenes so the organisation can focus on advocating for end-of-life choice.

anjela.jay@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk