Executive Committee

Emma is a Consultant Pharmacist at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. She has an MSc in Clinical Oncology and is an Independent Prescriber. Emma is currently Joint Chair of BOPA as well as Chair of the ISOPP Biosimilars Taskforce and a reviewer for the Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice. She was awarded the BOPA/PRUK research award in 2018 for a study investigating drug interactions between enzalutamide and DOACs. Emma is a visiting lecturer at the University of Brighton and enjoys teaching on the BOPA Intro to Oncology Study Day . Her special interests include renal cancer, drug interactions, non-medical prescribing (and canoeing!).

Seonaid McLachlan is Principal Pharmacist for Cancer Services in NHS Ayrshire & Arran. Seonaid is currently Joint Chair of BOPA and she is also a member of the Scottish Oncology Pharmacy Practice Group (SOPPG) and is the formal link between BOPA and SOPPG. As well as working for many years as a cancer care pharmacist, Seonaid has previously worked with the Scottish Medicines Consortium undertaking horizon scanning for cancer medicines in Scotland and was the pharmacy lead on the recent West of Scotland Strategic Review of Cancer Services. Her interests include service planning and redesign, particularly focusing on role development for pharmacists and technicians working in cancer services.

Netty is an experienced oncology pharmacist and has worked for over 15 years in this sector. She has a vast range of experience including lead oncology and haemato-oncology pharmacist within an NHS Trust, a lead role within an NHS cancer network, and project management roles for the implementation of SACT electronic prescribing both in the NHS and the independent sector. She is currently the Lead Cancer Pharmacist for Ramsay Healthcare UK. During these 15 years Netty has been an active member of BOPA and her current role within the executive committee is the BOPA secretary and Co-Chair of the Digital Subcommittee.

Netty also chairs the Independent Sector Oncology Pharmacy Group and is a member of the Independent Sector Cancer Network and UK Chemotherapy Forum where she represents BOPA. She is passionate about improving cancer care within the independent sector and improving safety for patients and staff with the use of digital media.

Joe is a Specialist Cancer Pharmacist at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and has previously been a member of the Cancer teams at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and University College London Hospitals with a specialist interest in prostate cancer, paediatrics and antimicrobial stewardship. He is now working towards his independent prescribing qualification within the colorectal cancer speciality.

His patient facing role within the MDT, has allowed him to initiate and progress applied health research projects in his area of practice to benefit patient care.

Joe won Best Oral Plenary Presentation at the BOPA 2017 Symposium in Glasgow for his abstract: ‘Preliminary results of a Specialist Pharmacist led Medicines Optimisation Service (Polypharmacy clinic) for Prostate Cancer patients’. As a consequence of this award he attended ASCO 2018 in Chicago as a member of the BOPA Bursary scheme where they promoted BOPA’s digital education strategy and provided digital education through videos and online graphics to the BOPA members.

Joe is Secretary elect of the BOPA Executive Committee and is also Co-Chair of the BOPA Digital Sub-committee. Joe is passionate about improving digital education of our members and the wider oncology audience.

Professor Rob Duncombe. Director of Pharmacy at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester. The Christie is one of the largest cancer centres in Europe treating patients from across the UK. The hospital recently opened the first NHS proton beam centres in the UK, and is one of the first hospitals to offer CAR T therapy to patients. Professor Duncombe has a particular interest in medicines optimisation in cancer drugs, identifying ways to achieve the best value from the use of these medicines. In recent years Prof Duncombe has been at the forefront of delivering dose-banded chemotherapy in the UK and the introduction of biosimilar medicines in cancer.

Dharmisha Chauhan is the Sarcoma, Skin and Melanoma Pharmacist at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. Interests include immunotherapy toxicity management, development of new models of care, management of rare cancers and its access to novel treatment options.

Dharmisha has collaborated both locally and nationally on immunotherapy toxicity algorithms and in the development of a national sarcoma treatment algorithm. She is a prescriber in sarcomas and melanoma and is an advocate of combined pharmacist and nurse led clinics.

Rich is a Regional Programmes Manager at Roche Products Limited. This role is non-promotional focused on NHS regional engagement and collaboration.

Rich previously worked in the NHS, his experiences include 10 years of working in the specialist areas of Haematology, Oncology and Aseptic services at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and Wirral University Teaching Hospital.

Olga is a senior haemato-oncology pharmacist. She is a qualified independent prescriber and was involved in the first pharmacist-led haematology MPD clinic at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She has a passion for providing education and training whilst promoting the value of the role of pharmacists in the healthcare system. She is now working at St James Hospital in Dublin.

Susanna Daniels has recently moved to the charity sector as a Project Manager of Melanoma Focus. The charity focuses on commissioning innovative research whilst providing high quality information to patients and healthcare professionals alike. Some of her projects include setting up a melanoma trial database for Health Care Professionals and patients, updating the patient support guide on melanoma and supporting the next biannual conference.

Prior to this, Susanna worked for over 3 years at MSD on pembrolizumab (melanoma and lung cancer) and a trastuzumab biosimilar. Activities involved operationalising the NSCLC EAMS scheme, running advisory boards and training.

All of Susanna’s previous experience is within the NHS in oncology. Her most recent role was as the Lead Cancer Services Pharmacist at UCLH (13 years). She is most proud of creating the renal and hepatic guidelines to support SACT dosing and introducing backpacks to ambulatory care to allow various patient groups have their treatment in the ambulatory setting, thus providing patients with greater autonomy and also freeing up much needed capacity.

Islam is the Lead Lung Cancer and Clinical Commissioning Support Pharmacist at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. He has a passion for clinical leadership, interdisciplinary learning and research.

Emma is a clinical pharmacist who is new to oncology, currently working at The Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She is interested in targeted cancer treatment and genomic medicine.

Pinkie is currently undertaking a PhD at University College London funded through the NIHR academy. Her research aims to determine the optimal blood testing validity periods for chemotherapy patients using risk modelling techniques. Her substantive role at UCLH is Lead Pharmacist for Applied Health research, a role that focuses on translational type 2 research. She has held various roles within cancer including developing new clinic pharmacy services at UCLH and Lead Pharmacist for London Cancer. She is a member of the UK Chemotherapy board as a BOPA representative , Joint Chair of The Chemotherapy Expert Reference group in London Cancer and a member of the Heath Foundation Q Community.

Lead Pharmacy Technician at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust

Alkesh currently works at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust which is based in Manchester. He is Lead Pharmacist for the Clinical Trials Service and has also worked on a number of innovative pharmacy projects that have led to publications such as the dose banding of pembrolizumab and development of patient apps.