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cancer central creator Avril Chester The Team

We are being created by you.

Cancer Central is being built by industry giants, leading organisations and experts as well as the sharpest minds in start-ups. Individuals and organisations are contributing to all aspects of the platform in an approach we call cominovation.

We wish to say a BIG thank you to everyone on our growing acknowledgement page.

cancer central creator Avril Chester Avril Chester, Founder & CEO
Avril is Entrepreneur of the Year at the Women in IT Awards 2019, Author of be with me, it’s c, Vice Chair & Trustee at seAp advocacy, and Director at Kaniave Limited.

Avril is a senior leader in technology who has worked across multiple sectors, delivering change and digital transformation. Avril realised the need for Cancer Central when she was being treated for breast cancer in 2015/16 and began her mission to build Cancer Central in January 2018. Avril documented the first year of her journey from technical executive to hopeful entrepreneur, in a business book that is interspersed with a sense of humour called Taking That Leap of Faith.

A few other links;
Innopsis Podcast, interview with Lynne Magennis
Tech Talks Podcast, interview with David Savage
People Change Things Podcast, interview with Brad Jennings
Horizon CIO Podcast, interview with Mark Chillingworth
7th in ERP IN NEWS 2017 Technology Trending Writing Competition with, ‘how we grow from breaks in our CV’
Article in the Daily Mirror

Non-Executive Board
The Board is collectively responsible for promoting the success of Cancer Central by directing the company’s affairs, constructively challenging and scrutinising the performance of management in meeting agreed goals and objectives, in accordance to Cancer Central’s Social Enterprise purpose. The Board has a legal governing function within Cancer Central.
#HelpisHere from our Non-Executive Directors – learn more about Brian, Melanie and Nigel’s involvement.
Non-Executive Director Brian Proffitt Brian Proffitt
Brian is technology partner in a PE firm, NED of several high tech businesses and Technology Director at a Business School. He divides his time between advising businesses and performing formative and turnaround CTO roles, recently creating the connected car telematics platform with Samsung. His experience includes creating and delivering digital strategies in the Cabinet Office, FTSE100 & Fortune 500 companies.
Non-Executive Director Melanie Rose Melanie Rose
As founder of CoDo London, Melanie specialises in agile approaches to software delivery, business change leadership and digital. Melanie is a contributing author to Business Analysis and Leadership: Influencing Change, edited by Penny Pullan and James Archer. Melanie enjoys mentoring and providing career guidance in schools.

Non-Executive Director Nigel Hall Nigel Hall
Nigel is an Internationally experienced board level, NED, Interim CEO, COO, MD and CTO/CIO. He has led operational units for Companies such as PRS for Music, KPMG McLaren, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Telefonica O2 & France Telecom. Nigel was part of the original start-up team for Orange UK and later led the International launch teams responsible for building the ‘disruptive’ Customer centric brand overseas. More recently, Nigel has been involved in growth focused businesses at Angel, Venture Capital and Private Equity level in a variety of roles both Executive & Non-Executive level covering change & international business growth.
Advisory Panel
Cancer Central’s Advisory Panel is a group of professionals who provide specialist expertise, diverse knowledge and perspective, connections to local or national colleagues or peers, philanthropic support or other forms of assistance to meet the objectives of Cancer Central.
#HelpisHere from our Advisors – learn more about Simon, Sandhya, Tim, Jon, Kali and Andrew’s involvement.
Advisory Panel Member Simon Nelson Simon Nelson
Previously an officer in the Royal Navy and now 25 years serving in the Police Force becoming Criminal Justice lead in 2017 and more recently, promotion to Superintendent. Simon was diagnosed with stomach cancer and underwent twelve months of treatment including having his stomach removed. Although Simon manages challenges he remains active as operational and tactical commander.
Advisory Panel Member Sandhya Sharma Sandhya Sharma
Sandhya is Head of HR for YoungMinds, OD Consultant and Chair of Trustees for BowHaven, East London. She has15+ years within public and private sector organisations including experience of providing training interventions in Japan, South Africa, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Provides effective and efficient HR solutions to meet business needs with a special interest in mentoring and coaching staff. Sandhya is a survivor of breast cancer.
Advisory Panel Member Tim Harrison Tim Harrison
Tim is a communications consultant, interim director and board advisor with over 20 years’ experience working with leading corporations and the freshest start-ups. He has held senior marketing, communications and strategic development roles with leading companies on the FTSE 100 and NASDAQ and until 2014, served as Sony Mobile's Vice President, Global Communications & PR. Tim is an Accredited Practitioner of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Advisory Panel Member Jon Downing Jon Downing
Experienced innovation, service and technology leader, with over 25 years successfully delivering significant business & technology service improvement at multiple global companies - including Visa, American Express, J P Morgan, & HP Enterprise Services. Jon was a key member of Visa Europe’s Innovation Hub, Visa Collab, which was responsible for identifying and testing the most exciting and revolutionary ideas in payments and developing them into a commercial reality.
Advisory Panel Member Kali Bagary Kali Bagary
Kali currently holds multiple Non-Executive and Advisory positions including the role of Chair. He is a senior executive with over 30 years’ experience of IT and software in insurance and financial services within the UK, Europe, Nordics, and South Africa. Kali’s key strengths include developing and marketing propositions with a focus on business development. Kali was one of the founders and co-chair of the “Finance IT Network” (FITN), a network for CIO’s looking at innovation in technology within the financial services.
Advisory Panel Member Andrew Smith Andrew Smith
As UK Lead for Salesforce.com at Capgemini UK, Andrew has been the driving force behind their UK capability, overseeing their expansion and increasing recognition as a leading player in the cloud technology market. Andrew has a passion for creating digital innovation with the customer at the heart.

Risk & Audit Committee
Cancer Central’s Risk & Audit Committee assists the CEO and board by providing advice and guidance on the set up and operation of a value-led ethical and legal framework to drive corporate governance and control.
The Committee is chaired by Melanie Rose with Nigel Hall as Vice-Chair. The committee works in a quasi-legal capacity with a panel of subject matter experts on a voluntary basis, covering a range of areas requiring frameworks and governance to mitigate operational risk, including verification, safeguarding and data governance.
Advisory Panel Member Jon Rosser Jon Rosser
Jon joined World Child Cancer as Chief Executive in 2015. Childhood cancer is mostly curable in developed countries, but is largely undiagnosed and untreated in developing countries. World Child Cancer works to even the odds for children in developing countries, by improving treatment; developing programmes to ensure earlier detection and diagnosis; and supporting families faced with the huge additional costs of having a child with cancer, particularly where treatment and drugs are not free.
Advisory Panel Member Kate Surala Kate Surala
Kate is Partner and Chief Compliance Officer at The Analyst Research LLP. She oversees all operations at The Analyst and leads legal and compliance matters as well as strategic development of the business. As a recognition of her achievements to date, Kate was awarded the Management Today's 35 women under 35 in June 2019. Kate is a graduate of the MSc in Law and Finance at Pembroke College, University of Oxford and holds an MA (European Public Affairs) and an LLB (European Law) from Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
Advisory Panel Member Elizabeth Charlotte Moser Elizabeth Charlotte Moser
Charlotte, is a clinical oncologist (MD) by training, completing her PhD in statistics & epidemiology in the Netherlands, and recently MSc in cancer biology & drug development and MBA in Cambridge, US. Charlotte is a known international speaker, part of the Harvard Health Summit and access to care catalyst as well as the European school of Oncology. Charlotte is part of different advisory boards, both academic, non-profit as well as for commercial start-ups. Since her MIT artificial intelligence degree, Charlotte is committed to bringing more analytics into clinical practice and is involved in different companies creating predictive toolkits for primary health and oncology care management. Charlotte is fluent in English, French, Portuguese, Afrikaans, German and Dutch.
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Cancer Central C.I.C. Registered in England No. 10733608. Registered office, Chantry House, 22 Upperton Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN21 1BF
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We are excited to share that we have been shortlisted in the Digital Leaders, HealthTech Innovation of the Year award and the public vote is now open.
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