THE KHL TEAM
Melanie Hey
CEO
Melanie has been working for KHL for over 10 years and is passionate about supporting communities to improve their health and wellbeing. She has a range of experience of working in the health sector, local authority and the voluntary sector. She has a masters in health promotion and interested in behaviour and system change.
When not work Melanie enjoys spending time with her family, walking her dog and a bit of disco dancing!
Bridget La Fauci
Project Development Manager
Bridget manages the Keighley Connect Project which helps to connect people and communities together. This includes developing and supporting a variety of social groups, short courses, community projects plus coordinating volunteers. When Bridget is not working she is happiest being in the outdoors. Bridget’s every day love is walking her dog.
Helen Maguire
Project Development Manager
Helen manages the Lifestyle Change Project at KHL. She is a Psychology graduate and went on to train in Counselling. In her career so far she has managed a number of projects, helping people to make positive changes within their lives including substance misuse, homelessness and social isolation. She enjoys spending time with her family, and loves a Sunday roast!
Candy Squire-Watt
Project Development Manager – Mental Health
Candy manages the Mental Health Projects at KHL. In partnership with other local agencies, Mental Health Connect helps to support people to manage their mental health and improve their wellbeing through a combination of one to one support, groups and activities and training programmes.
Outside of work Candy enjoys Pilates, walking her dog and catching up with friends.
Flora Jennings
T-natal Project Manager
Born in Keighley and raised in an Italian family has given Flora great appreciation of the cultural differences in communities across Keighley. Flora has been supporting teenage/young parents and their families for over 14 years and is well known for her commitment and dedication towards helping them from pregnancy and into parenthood.
Dan Brannan
Facilities and IT Manager
Dan manages the building and infrastructure such as the IT, databases etc. He has worked for KHL since 2013 where he started as a Project Support Worker on placement and has performed a variety of roles since including line manager to some staff members and delivering IT courses.
Rowena Garton
Personal Assistant
Rowena is Melanie’s assistant and also supports the Trustees as well as helping with funding and HR admin. She is a keen runner and enjoys camping holidays with her family.
Kristina Spencer
Volunteer Coordinator
Kristina supports people to enrich their lives through volunteering. Alongside working, Kristina is also currently studying towards a Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling and hopes to help people make positive differences in their wellbeing. She loves animals, and reading, but most of all, she enjoys spending time with her children.
Chloe Flaherty
Marketing and Communications Coordinator
Chloe started at KHL in August 2022 after recently having a baby and requiring a change of sector, and pace of life. She came with lots of marketing experience and now thoroughly enjoys working in such a rewarding job role, seeing and promoting the impact that KHL have. Chloe is passionate about the local community, as she is born in Keighley. She loves spending time with her family and making the most of everyday.
Emma Haberton
Communications & Marketing Coordinator
Emma joins us on maternity cover, bringing her experience from consumer healthcare. She is passionate about health and wellbeing communications across all audiences and looks forward to applying her understanding to a community-based business.
When not at work, Emma enjoys spending as much time as possible outdoors with her family.
Susan Atkinson
Engagement Officer
Sue has years of experience of working as an Occupational Therapist in the NHS. She has recently joined Keighley Health Living and is looking forward to chatting with people in the KHL groups and wider community to find out more about their experiences of care and to collect comments and feedback to support existing services and the development of new ones. In her spare time Sue enjoys swimming, craft activities and watching rugby league.
Anita Gray
Community Connector – MAST
Anita represents KHL in the MAST Team at Airedale General Hospital and in the community.
Alison Lee
Exercise Coordinator and Referral Practitioner
Alison is a registered Exercise Referral Practitioner and Stroke Rehabilitation Exercise Instructor with vast experience in delivery of community-based exercise. She teaches a variety of exercise classes at KHL and at out-reach locations and coordinates the exercise class timetable for KHL’s classes. Alison has over 25 years’ experience of teaching exercise classes and has also worked as a school teacher. In her spare time you may find Alison watching classical ballet or cooking.
Rebecca Ellis
Nutritionist and Lifestyle Change Coach
Rebecca has been working with Keighley Healthy Living since March 2022, after finishing
both her BSc and MSc in Nutrition at Sheffield Hallam University. With anything food and
nutrition based at KHL, you’ll find Rebecca is involved in some way. You will find Rebecca
running a whole range of sessions, such as weight loss clubs, emotional eating courses, cook and eats, type 2 diabetes awareness courses and much more. She engages with our
participants in groups and on a 1:1 basis, tailoring advice and sessions to fit to their needs.
Claire Bergman
Mental Health Connect Health & Wellbeing Coach
Claire is an experienced and accredited counsellor, having worked for over sixteen years with both short and long-term clients in a variety of settings, as well as having been a counselling co-ordinator for a large organisation. She loves to be outdoors; growing plants and flowers and spending time with her grown-up children and cat.
Liz Firth
Reception and Project Support Administrator
Liz has been working for KHL for over 2 years in her role as admin/project support. Liz really enjoys the variety of her role, especially meeting new people. If you would like to find out about a particular course or group, Liz can help you with this. Previous to this she worked in various administrative roles within the NHS. During her spare time Liz enjoys spending time with her children and also swimming and walking.
Natalie Edge
Reception and Project Support Administrator
After struggling with mental health, Natalie attended KHL as a participant and then went on to volunteer. We saw the positive impact that attending KHL had on Natalie’s life and recognised she had lots of valuable skills, and therefore gave her the opportunity to work at KHL on a part-time basis. Natalie assists with administrative tasks, helps on reception and also runs a British Sign Language course on weekly basis. When not at KHL, she enjoys walking and training her dog and listening to podcasts.
Angela Houldsworth
Reception/Project Support Administrator
Angela supports the KHL team members and service users of KHL with anything they might need. You can sometimes find her on reception, helping out in groups. Angela is a familiar face to anyone who uses the KHL building and is always happy to help.
THE RETHINKING PAIN TEAM
Kerry Page
Project Lead
Kerry is a project manager with a passion for supporting people who live with chronic pain. She creates effective and collaborative connections between the voluntary care sector and clinical care professionals. Kerry is currently overseeing a new district wide programme of work to instate a community-based chronic pain and MSK support service called Rethinking Pain, across Bradford District & Craven.
Richard Cuthbert
Operations Coordinator
Richard joined the team at the time of the launch of the Rethinking Pain service, in October 2022. He oversees the day-to-day running of the service alongside making community links. He is really looking froward to getting back to community-based work and meeting new people in the local area. Richard’s two passions outside of work are sports and cake.
Ruth Brady
Health and Wellbeing Coach
Ruth joined the team at the time of the launch of the Rethinking Pain service, in October 2022. She offers support to Rethinking Pain service users. Ruth recently graduated with a degree in Physical Activity, Exercise & Health and is passionate about helping people overcome the barriers they face to living a healthier lifestyle. Outside of work ruth enjoys keeping active in the gym, hiking, and playing netball.
Jenny Laskowsky
Pain Social Prescriber
Jenny joined the team in March 2023. She offers support to Rethinking Pain service users. Jenny is currently training as an Art Therapist and is passionate about pain and the relationship emotions can have on our experience on pain. Outside of work Jenny enjoys lifting weights, Brazilian Jui-jitsu and painting.
Jyoti Soren
Health and Wellbeing Coach
Jyoti joined the Rethinking Pain team in April 2023 as a Health and Wellbeing Coach supporting people with long term pain. She has a passion for supporting people to reach their potential through building their confidence and self-esteem.
Jyoti was born in Kenya but grew up in Yorkshire and is a mother of three. Outside of work she loves doing creative things like knitting and crocheting, and going for long walks in nature.
Shahid Raza
Health & Wellbeing Coach
Shahid joined the team at KHL in September 2022 as an employability coordinator. Prior to this he spent 10 years working in local FE college as a lecturer and course leader. Shahid has a wealth of experience delivering employability courses both accredited and non-accredited. In his spare time he enjoys going to the gym and spending time with his family.
Rizwana Rowbotham
Administrator and Project Support
Rizwana joined the Rethinking Pain in June 2023 and provides operational and administrative project support to the team.
She is a mother to 3 lively boys so really appreciates her girl time! In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and the outdoors.
Pam Essler
Chair
Pam is currently Deputy Chair and Lay member for Patient and Public Engagement for the Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group. Her focus is on the development of community partnerships, public engagement, professional development, strategic governance and quality.
She has a strong interest in health inequalities within the local community and is on the Board of several local VCS organisations.
Recently, Pam has been awarded the British Empire Medal for outstanding contributions to her community. This is a very well deserved award for all of Pam’s work across many Keighley charities and NHS services.
Susan Bartlett
Trustee
She is a governor at a local primary school and an advisor on the board of Staying Put, the local domestic abuse charity.
Susan has been a member of Keighley Soroptimists for over thirty years and has been active in projects to help improve the lives of women and girls.
Fran Setter
Trustee
She works as a community and family mediator for a charity dealing with neighbourhood disputes and family relationship breakdowns and supports family and witnesses attending Coroners’ Court for inquests as well as some work for North Yorkshire Police helping with training exercises for new recruits and some youth work.
She is very pleased to have joined such a vibrant and caring charity as KHL and hopes that she can contribute to its future development.
Jean Hahn
Trustee
More recently, Jean worked at Director level with responsibility for Human Resources in both public and private sector organisations. Jean has also been a school governor and has helped to run a number of junior football teams over the years.
Jean is passionate about health and wellbeing, particularly mental health and wellbeing and, as a trained Mental Health First Aider, ensured all 40 + managers at her most recent employer’s organisation had mental health training to enable them to support staff when needed.
Sharon Orr
Trustee
Sharon joined Provident Financial Group in 2013 to manage and develop their community investment programme. She’s committed to making corporate community investment count through Provident’s innovative model of both financial and bespoke, non-financial support for charity organisations across the UK and Ireland. Alongside this, she wants to be able to make a contribution to the small charity sector through volunteering as a trustee.
In addition to being a trustee for Keighley Healthy Living, Sharon is a trustee for Leeds Community Foundation and has been part of their steering group focused on developing the foundation’s giving platform in Bradford.
She is also a Trustee at 1st Holme Valley (Holmfirth) Scout Group.
John Hartley
Trustee
His current role in commissioning health services is focused on supporting changes to services to ensure that the best possible health care is made available to people living in Bradford district and Craven. John is passionate about improving wellbeing and reducing inequalities within communities, supporting organisations to provide the best possible service and helping people to make a difference to their lives. He feels that Keighley Healthy Living (KHL) is instrumental in helping people to make these changes and is delighted to have joined the team to support ongoing work and future projects.
James Drury
Trustee
James works in the local Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership as Partnership Development Director.
He has many years of experience supporting collaboration between health and care organisations and the communities they serve. His particular experience is in the areas of strategy, transformation, partnership, and change management.
In the earlier part of his career, James also worked in legal services, with a focus on legal aid, welfare advice services, and support for refugees.
He is passionate about social justice, improving health and wellbeing, and to equality, diversity and inclusion. He is a committed champion of the voluntary and community sector.