Legs Matter Champions

When Rebeecca began to work in the community, she worked in the wound clinic mainly on leg ulceration. She found it incredibly rewarding and interesting healing wounds as well as the impact it has on patients’ quality of life. She is now a TVN and wishes to make the changes to lower limb care through education and give nurses the tools to make changes to patients quality of life.

Rebecca loves legs and is passionate about improving the outcomes of those who have leg ulcers.  She particularly enjoys seeing her community nursing colleagues talk about their success stories of patients who have healed in compression and seeing their passion grow.

Claire has a history of district nursing with a recent move into practice nursing. She is passionate about sharing knowledge and information with her colleagues, patients and their families on caring for legs. The difference that a knowledgeable practitioner can make to the life of a patient and their family is incredibly rewarding.

Laura feels like becoming a Legs Matter Champion is a great opportunity to raise awareness about lower limb issues and advocate for better care and support. She thinks it will allow her to help educate others about the importance of lower limb care, prompt discussions around leg health and contribute to improving the quality of life for those affected by leg related conditions.

Fran’s career has spanned continents and disciplines. Originally from New Zealand, she now works in London and has over 15 years of experience across the NHS and private sector. Fran is a musculoskeletal podiatrist with a unique specialism: applying sports medicine and biomechanics to tissue viability, wound healing, and lymphoedema management.

Melissa is the TVN link Nurse for her team in Marple and has made a leg ulcers file to try and get all patients assessed quicker and help educate them as early as possible. She always educates fellow colleagues on assessing legs properly and ensuring they are washing and creaming legs, elevating legs, doing a Doppler as needed and are stockings required.

Gemma has updated the pathway for patients with lower limb ulceration across Sunderland. The new pathways implements the NWCS guidance whilst also putting a focus on history and examination and is led by symptoms not an ABPI result. The pathway promotes referral into the vascular team for patients who have ulceration. It means that referrals, scans, diagnosis and endothermal ablation treatment for patients with venous ulceration will be possible without a GP or vascular consultant. The whole pathway is delivered by community nurses/SpNs/ACPs.

Fiona has been doing a lot of work within her team and the 4 attached GP practices to promote lower limb care. She has recently introduced the Welsh wet leg pathway and is seeing a massive improvement in patient response to caring for their limbs and compliance with treatment and shorter healing times. She is keen to raise awareness about prevention.

Gill has worked in the community setting for many years and the passion for change in lower limb management developed early and has been a continuous journey. She thinks that Legs Matter and the NWCS has been a huge driver for change. She hopes that being a Legs Matter Champion will support what she is trying to achieve, to continue to be a voice for lower limb management.

Emily Haworth is an advanced podiatrist and passionate advocate for vascular foot health, with over 25 years’ experience spanning clinical leadership, education, and national advisory roles.

Beth Lillico is a high-risk and vascular specialist podiatrist with over 18 years of NHS experience, championing nurse–podiatry partnerships to improve lower limb outcomes through collaborative, community-based care.

Sharon is really committed to raising awareness and improving care for patients affected by lower leg and foot conditions. The Legs Matter Campaign’s mission resonates with her as it looks to address one of the UK’s health challenges – non-healing leg and foot wounds. These conditions not only impact on physical health but also contribute to emotional distress and social isolation.

Dawn has worked as a Leg Ulcer Nurse for years, a TVN and now a Lymphoedema Team Manager. She is very passionate about legs and says her biggest battle is ensure advice and guidance to GP surgeries is given with regards to starting care at the earliest opportunity. Making sure they know the basics and not waiting on referrals into other services to do something.

Cwm Taf Wound Clinic offers all types of wound care for ambulatory patients across the health board. In 2024 the service recieved a number of referrals for patients who were vulnerable and homeless and required wound care. She’s been involved in taking wound care more locally to these people to support better engagment, consistency in care and reduce the amount of missed appointments for the service.

Legs are part of Lesley’s every day work as a Community Nurse and she likes to make a difference. She would like to be able to share more knowledge with colleagues and patients and would like to be better updated with information.

Jade is a huge advocate in promoting lower limb health to improve quality of life and overall well-being. By raising awareness and inspiring others, this will help prevent issues that limit mobility and independence. Being a champion will provide her with further opportunity of make a real difference in people’s lives.

Lexi is deeply committed to promoting leg health and ensuring that patients receive the highest quality care to treat and prevent further deterioration. She is enthusiastic about continuously learning new approaches and sharing this knowledge with her team to enhance our collective expertise. She is looking to benefit her patients, colleagues, and other healthcare professionals seeking guidance by being a Legs Matter Champion.

Being a Legs Matter Champion matters to Sibusiso as it aligns with his passion to save lower limb from amputation as he lives in a community that carries a great burden from Diabetes and Cardiovascular issues. It will allow him to learn more and apply the knowledge to different cases in order to save more lives as well as allowing him to spread awareness and support to people living with these comorbidities.

Shaye is a TVN at an acute hospital trust and knows that we need to do better at getting it right for our patients who present with cellulitis, leg wounds, hard to heal leg ulcers, and foot ulcers. It is a large organisation with lots of different focuses on complex wounds and pressure ulcers but leg and foot concerns are just as important. He recognises the need to risk assess, identify, and escalate to Specialist services sooner to ensure that patients have the best possible outcome. He wants to improve practices as a Trust and would like to support cascading Legs Matter resources to help staff and patients.

David is keen to be a Legs Matter Champion as he thinks its time to blow the roof of the hidden harm that is seen in everyday clinical practice for patients living with lower limb conditions. He wants to ensure that the message gets out there that this is not OK, and we should not be accepting this norm. The suffering mentally and physically that patients can feel because of lower limb and foot conditions waiting for an assessment is unfair and unwarranted.

Joy has been a nurse in the NHS for 41 years and has seen many changes. She always keeps abreast of research and current evidence and helps to put this into practice. She feels extremely passionate in helping to make change so that all patients and their families receive the best treatment and care.

James specialises in paediatrics and MSK. He has a special interest in hypermobility spectrum disorders and paediatric heel pain/flat foot and is passionate about keeping all children mobile.

Tasha has been a Community Carer for 10 years, then worked in a leg clinic and now has her own partnership and has joined a CIC. She thinks that all the information Legs Matter supply is so useful and they currently market it in the foot clinic and in the leg clinics! She is looking forward to spreading awareness across her clientele!

As a dedicated nurse at Hamstreet Surgery, she has worked tirelessly to make significant strides in the treatment and management of these conditions, particularly for long-term patients. She has a passion for improving leg and foot care, not only in enhancing patient outcomes, but in making the entire healthcare environment more efficient and patient-centered.

Gaynor wants to encourage and support her patients and colleagues in reducing patient harm, empower patients in appropriate and adequate self care as well as educate anyone who is will to listen regarding the lower limb.

Working in a Leg Clinic for the NHS Tamra noticed that a lot of the patients were relapsing with their healed legs, either due to non-compliance with wearing garments, and/or not moisturising their legs in particular, or not having enough support at home to manage their own leg care. She and 2 colleages have set up a private leg-washing club called The Trotters Lounge. Clients can stay for up to 2.5 hours, they wash their legs, trim their toenails and change compression garments helping them to become more confident and know that someone is keeping an eye on the condition of their legs. We are able to refer back to NHS services if needed. Trotters have just gained CIC status and can now apply for funding so that more people can use the service at a low cost/ donation.