Meet The Team

Before joining Jessie May, Claire spent 10 years as a Staff Nurse on the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit in Bristol, until she left and joined Jessie May in 2014. She has always had an interest in children’s palliative care and caring for children with complex medical needs; she heard about Jessie May and the work they do so when a post became available she jumped at the chance.

“Being a Jessie May nurse is so rewarding. No two days are the same.” One day Claire can be visiting a child doing nursing care and giving the families a break from the 24/7 care they provide for their children; they may even be able to squeeze a visit to the park or have some fun doing some painting. The next they could be supporting a family through their child’s end of life stage, or carrying out a bereavement support visit, or even supporting a family whose child is unwell in hospital. All of the support and respite Jessie May nurses give to families allows them to have a much needed break and spend time with their other children, or even have a well needed nap!

As one of the Care Team Leaders, Claire is responsible for a team of Jessie May nurses, supporting them to do their job to the best of their abilities. Claire is also involved with lots of project work, more recently championing the importance of Jessie May being a family led service and involving the families to help develop the service.

“After originally finding out about Jessie May, I went onto their website and watched a video of one of the nurses, and thought – I want to do that!!! I want to be able to build a relationship and trust with children and their families, which you just don’t get as much time to do on a busy ward. I feel extremely privileged to be a Jessie May nurse and I’m so proud of how, we as a team, are able to support families of children with life-limiting conditions.”

Claire is a devoted mother of three wonderful girls, leading a bustling life. When she finds moments to unwind, she loves embarking on adventures with her family in their campervan. Additionally, her passion for music shines bright as she enjoys spending her spare time singing harmoniously in a choir.

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.

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.

Before joining the core team at Jessie May, Gemma worked as a carer for ‘Lifetime’; she was there for 9 years. It was during her time at Lifetime that she decided to undertake a nursing degree. During the third year of her nursing degree, she came to Jessie May on placement and loved every minute of it. She joined the extended team soon after qualifying, with the intention of going to the hospital to work shortly after. In 2017, whilst on the extended team, she got offered a full time position on the Core Team, which she accepted.

As a Jessie May nurse, her role includes lots of different things. “We provide respite to families at home and while the child is in hospital. During respite we take over all aspects of the child’s care to give parents a break. This includes all clinical, emotional and personal care. We support children with a wide range of complex needs, including children who have tracheostomies and ventilated children. We also provide end of life care, bereavement support for parents and carers after the child has died. We advocate for and signpost our families to other services, attend multidisciplinary meetings, complete wishes documents and funeral planning, alongside the family. And, we work closely with a number of different community services and other professionals involved in the child’s care to ensure that the child’s emotional and clinical needs are being met.”

“I love my job because we are in the privileged position of getting to know the children and the families very well. This enables us to provide care to them which is unique and individual to that child, based on their needs. We see children where they are their most happiest; in their homes surrounded by their families. This in turn enables us to support them during more difficult times too, such as when they are really unwell and in hospital. Having that continuity of care allows the nurses to really get to know the children as individuals so that parents feel confident that all of their child’s needs will be met when we are supporting them.”

During her free time, Gemma enjoys indulging in live music, biking, and watching horror films.

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.”

Mary has been a Jessie May Nurse since 2017, and prior to this, worked on the children’s unit at Great Western Hospital in Swindon as a staff nurse for 20 years.

She has worked as part of the Jessie May Swindon Team since its launch in 2016, and has been a huge part in developing the service into what it is today. As a Jessie May Nurse she completes respite visits, as well as assessments and paperwork to enable us to provide these safely. She also supports families with meetings, applications and advice where possible, as well as signposting to other services. The role also includes bereavement support for families and end of life planning where appropriate.

“Everyday is a different day and a new challenge and I feel privileged to work with all our young people and families.

Working as a Jessie May nurse has given me the opportunity to get to know families extremely well; I feel honoured to be part of their world and to be given the access to their homes and lives. Each and every day gives me the opportunity to make a difference and this gives me a great deal of pride and job satisfaction.”

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.