Our team

Dr Sam Royston

Executive Director of Research and Policy

Sam was previously Policy Director at The Children's Society, and is also a former chair of the End Child Poverty coalition. Prior to that, Sam completed his PhD in the Social Policy department at the University of York, at which point he was also an adviser at a Citizens Advice Bureau. He is also author of the book "Broken Benefits: What's gone wrong with welfare reform"

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Dr Sabine Best

Associate Director, Research Management and Impact

Sabine oversees Marie Curie's portfolio of research activities. After training and postdoctoral work in the biomedical field, she held research management roles at the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Royal Society and Breakthrough Breast Cancer, before joining Marie Curie to set up the research management function.

Sabine is passionate about involving people with lived and professional experience in setting research priorities, to ensure research is addressing real world problems and has the potential to improve the end of life experience for everyone, in the short to medium term.

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Dr Emma Carduff

Associate Director of Evidence in Practice

Emma trained as a nurse at the University of Glasgow and completed a Master's degree in Public Health Research. She has been conducting palliative care research since 2007, starting with a PhD in research methods for palliative care research at the University of Edinburgh.

Emma is dedicated to ensuring equity in end of life experience for those living in marginalised groups, including people experiencing financial hardship. Emma is passionate about collaborative and applied research which impacts practice and policy and works closely with colleagues within Marie Curie and beyond to drive change and support service innovation within the sector.

Dr Briony Hudson

Associate Director of Internal Research Development

Briony is a health psychologist, and completed her PhD at the University of Surrey. She is an honorary research fellow at the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department at UCL and a research fellow for Pathway. She has worked in palliative care research for 10 years and is experienced in qualitative research and evidence synthesis and she leads the research development team at Marie Curie.

Briony’s research explores equity in palliative care access. She's received funding from the National Institute for Health and Research to explore new models or care and support for people experiencing homelessness who may benefit from palliative care.

Jon Antoniazzi

Associate Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Wales

Jon leads Marie Curie’s political and system influencing activity in Wales and is a member of the NHS Wales Executive’s National Programme for Palliative and End of Life Care. He oversees the End of Life Transformation Programme which provides evidence and impetus towards reducing unscheduled emergency admissions in the last year of life.

Prior to joining Marie Curie, Jon has held senior roles within Macmillan Cancer Support, Tenovus Cancer Care, Senedd and was the Chair of Rhondda Cynon Taff Citizens Advice. He has played a critical role in reforming new treatment funding rules in Wales and also ensuring people with a terminal illness are fast tracked for their benefits.

Joan McEwan

Associate Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Northern Ireland

Joan leads the charity's policy and influencing function in Northern Ireland and has held strategic roles in health collaborations such as the NI Cancer Strategy and the NI Bereavement Network.

Joan enjoys leading strategic initiatives in collaboration with system stakeholders to deliver better quality of life for patients and carers. Prior to joining Marie Curie she was a member of its Advisory Board and worked in financial services, establishing and leading new functions across the UK and Ireland.

She has held several Board positions and is currently a Non Executive Director of the Department of Finance.

Amy Dalrymple

Associate Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Scotland

Amy leads Marie Curie’s public policy, and system and political influencing in Scotland. She leads Marie Curie Scotland’s mission to see a right to palliative care realised for everyone in Scotland who needs it, building a coalition across politics and civic society for a rights based approach to system change, informed as far as possible by the people and communities it affects.

Amy has particular interests in dementia and social care and in participative approaches in policy.

Amy has 25 years’ professional experience of working to shift power imbalances. She most recently led policy for the Royal College of Nursing in Scotland and for Alzheimer Scotland. She currently volunteers as a trustee for Down’s Syndrome Scotland and as a Director of the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.

Ruth Driscoll

Associate Director of Policy and Public Affairs, England

Ruth Driscoll leads Marie Curie’s policy and public affairs work in England. Prior to joining us, Ruth was Director of a South London charity supporting lonely and isolated older people and people with dementia. She also worked in policy, research and public services roles at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.

In her early career, Ruth worked in a range of overseas development jobs inside and outside Government, including as a Special Advisor to a Secretary of State. Ruth is passionate about using evidence to improve policy and practice in palliative and end of life care, and about tackling inequalities in access for people who are missing out.

Her team’s work with the UK Government, Parliament, Integrated Care Boards and local councils aims to achieve this impact.