Our Trustees

Dr Alison Earley MBBS FRCP RCPCH DTM&H Consultant Paediatrician (retired)

Alison was a consultant paediatrician in Buckinghamshire. She retired early from full time NHS work, in order to gain some experience of international paediatrics. She did the tropical medicine diploma at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2003.

Since 2004, she been involved with the charity Maternal and Childhealth Advocacy International, initially as project lead for Cameroon and latterly as one of the neonatal trainee educators in Liberia.  She is an NLS Instructor and was heavily involved in setting up the Neonatal Care Course in Cameroon.  Alison is the lead trustee for NICHE International for 2021-2025.

Alison Grove BA Hons

An experienced administrator, Alison has worked in the NHS, the private sector, and at the Wellcome Trust as Grants Administrator and then Assistant to the Director.

She is the former executive manager of MCAI (Maternal & Childhealth Advocacy International), a charity dedicated to saving the lives of seriously ill pregnant women, children and babies in countries where there is extreme poverty. She has extensive organisational experience in this field which is invaluable in the running of the NICHE courses.

She has also undertaken freelance writing and proofreading work and is a published writer of short fiction. She works a croft in the North West Highlands in partnership with her husband, and takes to the hills whenever time and weather allow.

Dr Cath Harrison

I am a neonatologist and transport consultant based in Yorkshire, with training in the UK, South Africa and Australia.

I have been a consultant neonatologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust since 2004 and am also the Clinical lead for Embrace, Yorkshire and Humber Infant and Children’s transport service. I also chair the UK Neonatal Transport Group.

My areas of interest are transport, global health, newborn resuscitation and ventilation and am passionate about training and educational opportunities in neonatology. I was the Royal College of Paediatrics Speciality Advisory Committee chair for neonatology for 7 years and am now their training advisor, overseeing higher specialist neonatal training in the UK working closely with the General Medical Council.

I have worked over the last 25 years in LMIC ( Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda) on sustainable education and training projects to improve newborn care.

 

Dr Alistair Morris MBBS, MRPCH, MMedSci (Child Health), BSc (Hons), PG Dip (Neurodisability), PGCert (Education)

Alistair is a consultant paediatrician in Calderdale, UK.  He has a strong interest in medical education.  He runs and cycles competitively and is the UK medical director of the mountain rescue team. He has been known to climb Mount Cameroon in a day between 2 Neonatal Care Courses.

Dr Julia Thomson BA BM MSc FRCPCH 

Julia works as a general paediatrician in east London. She has been interested in overseas development work since being a Project Trust volunteer English teacher in Indonesia in the 1980s. She has travelled extensively in Africa, south east Asia and the West Indies playing an eclectic mixture of roles in teaching, deck hand, safari guiding and – latterly – medicine. She did a degree in French and Philosophy before changing tack to do medicine and her retained ability to negotiate in French has proved useful in getting the manikins and equipment through customs in Cameroon. Julia is an EPALS, NLS and GIC instructor, and has been instructing on the Neonatal Care Course and GIC in Cameroon since 2015, Liberia since 2018 and Uganda since 2022.

Dr John Madar

John is a consultant neonatologist in Plymouth, UK. He is an experienced Newborn Life Support and Generic Instructor Course instructor and course director with overseas experience of running courses in the UAE, Egypt, Iceland and Cameroon.  He is the education co-chair for NLS on the European Resuscitation Council.

Seb Palmer

Seb has a degree in Arabic and a Masters in Computer Science.  His skills are put to good use at NICHE where he is responsible for the day to day running of the charity, finances and website.  He accompanied his wife, Julia Thomson, to Cameroon in April 2017 where, as well as helping out with the hospital’s IT issues, he spent much of the time cleaning up paint from the floor of the children’s ward where their children were painting a mural.