Meet Team Tiny Tickers

Paul Schofield

Chair

Paul has worked for over 25 years in the City of London managing sustainable equity portfolios – funds designed to generate both financial returns and have a positive and measurable impact on society.

Paul is keen to use his skills to benefit others through his voluntary trustee role at Tiny Tickers.

Professor Alan D Cameron MD FRCOG FRCP (Glas)

Alan was a Consultant Obstetrician in Glasgow for 28 years. He retired from the NHS at the beginning of 2019. 

In 2020, Alan was appointed as a clinical adviser to the Healthcare Safety Investigation branch and is currently an obstetric adviser to Welsh Government.

Sonia Beard

Sonia was born with a congenital heart defect and diagnosed at 18 months old. She underwent open heart surgery and received a donor heart valve to fix the stenosis in 2015. Since then, she has graduated from the University of Exeter with a degree in English Literature and has used her experience of heart surgery to become a tissue donation ambassador for NHS Blood and Transplant and join the NHS England National Youth Forum.

Jane Fisher

Jane is Director of the charity, Antenatal Results and Choices (ARC). She is involved in directly supporting women and their partners, training health professionals, research, policy and media work.

Sally Insley

Sally has been a professional fundraiser for the last ten years, predominantly within the hospice sector. A committee member with the Chartered Institute of Fundraising in the West Midlands since 2014, Sally is passionate about supporting other fundraisers.

Sally’s daughter was diagnosed with congenital heart block during her 20 week scan.

Dr. Shuba Barwick

Shuba is a consultant Fetal and Paediatric Cardiologist at Leeds Congenital Heart Unit. Her area of expertise is Fetal and Paediatric Cardiology. She was appointed as a consultant at Leeds in 2007.

David Sandison

David had a career of over 35 years in the finance industry as a fund manager and institutional stock broker living in Hong Kong and Thailand in the 1990s.

He retired in 2023 and joined Tiny Tickers as Treasurer Trustee in 2024.

Ilaria Calabresi

Ilaria has worked in the asset management industry since 2009. She is the Head of Sustainable Investing and Stewardship at a global asset manager. Ilaria is keen on contributing to society through charitable initiatives and is a Trustee of a large foundation.

She became a Trustee of Tiny Tickers in 2023.

Rachel Avison

Support Group Facilitator

Rachel joined Tiny Tickers in 2020 to facilitate our new virtual peer support groups. As a Clinical Psychologist, she recognises the huge value in people coming together to talk through their personal and shared experiences and forming close and supportive connections with others in similar situations.

Abbie Mitchell

Support Group Facilitator

Abbie has worked in the charity sector for over 10 years, delivering mental health, resilience and peer support programmes.

At her 20 week scan, Abbie found out her baby, Jasper, had CHD. She is now proud to be running our virtual pregnancy support group. 

Gill McBurney

Cardiac Liaison Nurse Specialist Advisor

Gill has worked in paediatric cardiology since 1992 and moved into the cardiac nurse specialist role in 2001. She is passionate about ensuring parents-to-be are fully supported and prepared for the journey ahead

Jan Forster

Jan is the Consultant Clinical Scientist in Leeds and specialises in fetal and congenital echocardiography.

She has been a regular trainer for Tiny Tickers, supporting sonographer education across the country, and is passionate about supporting obstetric sonographers to increase the
antenatal detection of CHD in the UK.

Sam Bainbridge

Sam works as a cardiac sonographer, specialising in fetal, paediatric and adult congenital echocardiography in Leeds.

She joined the team at Tiny Tickers more than eight years ago, and has visited hospitals
across the country to deliver hands-on-training.

Angie Smith

Angie is a Midwife Sonographer with a specialist interest in fetal cardiology, with over 20 years of ultrasound experience.

She is passionate about training sonographers in better improving the antenatal detection of congenital heart defects. Since 2015, she’s been involved in providing specialist fetal cardiac training at local, national and international levels.

Niki Harding

Niki is a sonographer with 40 years of scanning experience, and her specialist area of interest is fetal heart scanning.

She has been a specialist trainer for Tiny Tickers since 2015. Training sessions for Tiny Tickers have taken her all over the UK, from Aberdeen to Northern Ireland, and also to Jersey.

Carla Blunt

Carla is a consultant fetal and congenital cardiac physiologist, with a Doctorate in clinical sciences. She specialises in fetal and congenital echocardiography. Her career has spanned over 20 years.

Laura Cullen

Laura is a midwife, who trained as a sonographer over eight years ago.

She has spent much of her career scanning in fetal medicine, performing detailed screening echos for patients at increased risk of having a baby with CHD.

Karolina Hall

Karolina has worked as
the Band 8 Lead Fetal Cardiac Echocardiographer and Senior Chief Pediatric Cardiac
Physiologist at the Evelina Hospital in London since 2010.

Her special interests lie in fetal cardiology, advanced echo imaging,  and fetal medicine.

Helen Payne

Helen originally qualified as a diagnostic radiographer in 2006, then went on to receive a postgraduate diploma in ultrasound in 2009.

She has over 15 years of experience working as a qualified sonographer in the NHS.