Meet The Team

Steve has been a qualified nurse for almost 10 years (qualified in 2015). Before he worked at Jessie May, he was a staff nurse on the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Bristol Children’s Hospital. He always wanted to work with children who had complex care needs after a placement during his nursing training. He would have loved to have worked in the community from the moment he qualified, but there wasn’t a post available at the time. His time working in the Intensive Care Unit was so valuable, and provided him with the skills needed to confidently work in the community.

He joined Jessie May in November 2016, as a nurse providing visits to children and their families. He started off ‘out on the ground’, providing care to the children and supporting their families, which is the main part of our work at Jessie May. He has since moved on to become a Team Leader, where part of his role now is in planning the care and line management of the nurses.

“I do still get to go out and provide care, which is the best part of my job. I feel so privileged to be able to work for Jessie May and to provide this type of care to children and families when they really need it. I do also enjoy working on developing the Jessie May service and working in partnership with other services to improve the care of children with complex needs.”

Before joining Jessie May, Sam worked at the Bristol Children’s Hospital on the Renal Ward and PICU. She was passionate about supporting children with additional needs, and especially supporting children and young people with non-verbal communication to feel empowered during their time in hospital.

During her time there, she would always see families walking out the ward doors and wished that she could walk out there with them to help support them on the other side. She had heard about the support Jessie May nurses were able to give families at home, as well as in hospital, and jumped at the chance as soon as a position came up!

She started out on the Swindon and Wiltshire team, as the service opened in that area in 2016, and later transferred to the Bristol team, developing into a Care Team Leader after working across all areas.

Before joining Jessie May, Lois was undertaking a palliative care rotation – she worked on the Oncology Ward at Bristol Children’s Hospital, but she always wanted to work in paediatric palliative care. Lois originally came to Jessie May with the thoughts of staying for a year before moving on, but she fell in love with the job and never left – having been here since 2017!

She started as a Jessie May nurse working within the Bristol team, working with families, offering specialist respite care, end of life care and bereavement support across our Jessie May catchment area. She loves being out and about on visits, building relationships and caring for children and their families and it’s the main reason that she came into this job. The role of a Jessie May nurse is wide ranging and varied and no two days are the same!

She is now the End of Life Team Leader which is an integral part of the care team leads. In this role, she prioritizes end-of-life care and takes charge of coordinating support and assistance for children and their families during this challenging period.

“I work for Jessie May because I love it! It’s an honour to be able to care for the children and their families and to be able to support them during the highs and the lows.”

In her spare time, she loves baking delicious treats, throwing herself into cold water in the form of wild swimming and snuggling up making a crochet blanket to warm up afterwards.

Hi, I’m Hannah Williams. I am the new Team Leader for Jessie May across BSW (Banes, Swindon and Wiltshire). I qualified as a children’s nurse in 2006 and spent 12 years working on a busy children’s high dependency unit in Liverpool before moving down to Wiltshire in 2021. I have been working for the Children’s Continuing Care Team in Wiltshire since 2022. I am musical and enjoy singing and have recently got in to crystal art. 

Andy qualified in 2007, and spent the first 6 years of his nursing career on the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Bristol Children’s Hospital. Having heard about Jessie May through the hospital, he joined the nursing team in 2013.

A multi-faceted role, his days see him caring for children with complex needs, in their own home and in the hospital. He is also involved in providing family support, including signposting to other services they may be able to access, and advocating for families in multi-professional meetings when trying to access further support.

“I work for Jessie May because of the privilege we have to be allowed to integrate into our families homes and lives.”

Andy is a big lover of music who is wholeheartedly obsessed with Prince, since the age of 13; he is an avid collector of his music and memorabilia. “It’s a love affair for me that I will take to my grave.” He also loves to cycle; he cycles to many of his family visits if he can.

Mel’s nursing career began in London; following completion of her training she remained and gained some valuable specialised paediatric nursing experience for a further 3 years. She then returned nearer to home and began working on the children’s unit in Swindon. During the 18 years she worked on the Unit, she nursed children with a wide range of medical, surgical conditions and children with chronic and acute conditions.

In 2017, she joined Jessie May where she now works as a nurse. During this time she has met loads of amazing families, and gotten to know, even better, some of the families she had previously supported on the ward.

“As a Mum myself, I know that the most precious gift we are given in life is our children, so to be trusted with the care of children with such complex needs, in the privacy of their own homes, is an absolute privilege and pleasure, and something that I will never take for granted.”

Before she joined Jessie May, Bryony studied childcare at college and went on to work in a couple of nurseries; one of them being an on-site hospital nursery. She then started working for Jessie May in 2017.

As one of the Jessie May nurses, Bryony provides regular respite visits for the children and families that we support.

“I work for Jessie may as it’s a privilege to work alongside the children and their families. It’s so nice being able to support them when they really need it.”

Victoria worked on the Adolescent Ward in Bristol Children’s Hospital for 7 years, with a keen interest in oncology care. She trained in the administration of chemotherapy and successfully completed two degree modules in Oncology. Other areas of practice included orthopaedics, surgical, respiratory, gastro, neuro, and mental health. The Adolescent Ward was multi-speciality and so she was lucky enough to see a huge variety of diagnosis and treatments delivered. Over the years she has developed a passion for tissue viability and wound care management.

After an incredible 7 years with the Adolescent Ward having made some of her best memories and friends she moved to Lighthouse Ward where she received comprehensive training and education for the care of renal children. She is trained to deliver haemodialysis and became an independent nurse prescriber through further university study. It was also on Lighthouse Ward that she undertook her first master module in physical assessment and clinical reasoning of paediatric patients. She was lucky enough to experience all aspects of renal care from dialysis to a ward based setting, and had a short secondment to community whereby she realised that community care was definitely an area of interest.

“Having a young daughter myself I really understand how precious our children are to us, and since joining Jessie May it is a huge privilege to be welcomed into families homes to care for their children. Coming out of a hospital environment after 10 years has been a big culture shock, however I absolutely love working in the community and for Jessie May.

Being a Jessie May nurse allows you to see the direct impact of providing respite care and how incredibly valuable the service is – I feel very lucky to be part of it.”

Ash’s nursing career started working at Southmead Hospital in NICU when she first qualified as a nurse. She then worked in BCH in ambulatory services on a ward called puzzle wood which is historically known as clinical investigation unit CIU; this is where children underwent investigations for allergies, or endocrine conditions and they would then give treatment to children to keep them in remission.

“I recently joined Jessie May in November as I really wanted to work in the community to help families and children at home; I really enjoying it and feel so proud to be part of the team.”

Ash loves playing rugby, badminton, and cold water swimming during winter. She’s a proud dog mom to Teddy, a 5-year-old cockapoo, enjoying walks, big parks, and beach days together.

Alice joins us with over 20 years of live event experience having worked on both corporate events and touring live music around the world. Most recently she re-trained as a funeral arranger where her attention to detail helped families say their best goodbyes.

This new role will see Alice bringing Jessie May families together and creating memorable events while building on the amazing work the Jessie May nurses do.

“I am really excited to be taking on this new role and the benefits it will bring to the families we support.”

Hi, I’m Molly and I’m really excited to be joining Jessie May as a Family Support Worker. I’ve spent over ten years working in young people’s services as a dramatherapist, and I’m passionate about using creativity and care to support families. I live in North Bristol and in my spare time I love all things drama and film! I’m really looking forward to being part of the Jessie May team and getting to know everyone.

Michelle is deeply committed to listening to service users and using their feedback to shape and improve services. This passion for truly hearing people and making sure they feel valued stems from her 22-year career as a Customer Service Manager, where she led a team of 22 contact centre advisors. She especially enjoyed supporting her team with soft skills training, coaching on telephone communication, and driving consistently high service standards across a national network of companies. One of her proudest achievements during this time was receiving an award for outstanding service.

After recovering from a short illness — and marking a milestone birthday — Michelle felt inspired to take a new direction in life. She began that journey with a one-way ticket to India, spending several months travelling and reflecting. Feeling renewed and with a fresh sense of purpose, she chose to pursue her long-standing passion for supporting people and using feedback to drive meaningful change. This led her to a career in the NHS, where she held roles within the Quality and Governance Team. There, she supported patients through difficult experiences, championed their voices within the organisation, and helped ensure feedback led to real improvements in care.

“Joining Jessie May as Bereavement Coordinator is a real privilege. I’m able to support families during some of their most difficult times, being there whenever and for as long as they need. Jessie May reflects my core values, and I feel honoured to work with such an incredible organisation. I’m inspired by all the people I’ve listened to over the years — whether on the phone, face to face, or during a reflective milestone birthday. I’m also currently studying part-time for a degree alongside my role, continuing my commitment to learning and personal growth.”