As part of International Women's Day celebrations, we wanted to recognise some of the incredible women we work alongside.

Esther Wakeman

Since she joined Leeds Hospitals Charity in February 2020, our CEO Esther Wakeman has led Leeds Hospitals Charity through a global pandemic, helping us continue to provide the best possible support to NHS staff and patients across our local hospitals at a time when they needed us most.

She has been inspired by the many great women who work for Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust and how they go out of their way to support their patients and work with the charity to deliver even better care and treatment.

Esther has 11 years' experience working in the hospice sector, and understands the importance of physical care from birth to death. She is passionate about enabling supporters to give to what they care about and enjoys supporting people's personal and professional development within the charity.

Esther is leading the charity towards having a greater impact through our three strategic priorities of supporting our hospitals to tackle health inequalities, fund health technology and innovations and improving treatments of rare conditions.

This strategy is underpinned by our values of working together, transforming lives and being transparent.

Claire McGarry

Claire McGarry is a Health & Wellbeing Practitioner at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. We're proud to fund specialist staff roles like Claire's, who've provided crucial mental health support to staff during the COVID pandemic Hear more from Claire:

Jo Jones

Jo Jones is the Deputy Head of the Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Service at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. We're proud to support the incredible work of the Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care team, who go above and beyond to help patients and their loved ones through some of the hardest times of their lives. Hear more from Jo:

Dr Tze Wah

Dr Tze Wah is Consultant Interventional Radiologist at Leeds Cancer Centre. We're proud to fund crucial research projects at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, that enable staff like Dr Wah to provide the very best for cancer patients at Leeds Cancer Centre. Hear more from Tze:

Jacqui Drake

Despite having terminal skin cancer, Jacqui has a positive outlook on life and is dedicated to raising funds to help cancer patients through her Jacqui's Million appeal.

Thanks to her incredible fundraising efforts, Jacqui has raised £291,503.

Read how Jacqui's fundraising has made a difference

To pledge a donation simply visit justgiving.com/jacquimillion

Our Trustees

Recognising some of our wonderful charity Trustees, who are committed to helping us provide the best possible support to Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

Dr Ai Lyn Tan

In 2020, Dr Tan pioneered a small but vital study towards understanding how the muscles can be affected in people who have had Covid-19, and we were delighted to provide £24,000 to support this project thanks to your donations.

The research and innovation team at the NIHR Leeds Biomedical Research Centre will scan the muscles of patients who had Covid-19 using an MRI scanner, and compare the scans with those who have not had Covid-19.

Covid-19 and related conditions are new diseases where there is much to learn to help people who are affected.

The findings are likely to lead to further research related to the consequences of Covid-19 infection, such as long Covid, which continues to have a major impact on the lives of many sufferers, symptoms of which can include muscle weakness and muscle pain.