The baton is passed from Alison to Alpana
This is now easier to say… I am retiring from my role as CEO of Accelerate on the 28 February 2025.
It has been the honour of my life to have led Accelerate, to have worked alongside such a committed team and to have learnt so much from the patients we serve.
People keep asking ‘what have been the best bits?’ What do I honestly pick out from the last 14 years? It would be a long list! But I suppose it comes down to three critical areas:
- At the outset we knew we had a mission to improve the lives of people with wounds and unmanaged lymphoedema. There remains an enormous number of people, today, across the country who have had their lives and hopes destroyed by an inadequate system slow to provide what evidence tells us is required; this remains avoidable, and the health system is blinkered to their plight.
Over many years I have sat and listened to people tell their story and share the depth of their experience. This has shaped me and, I hope, the services we provide that are based on mutual respect and kindness. I am always humbled by what I hear and if we have helped in any way, I am frankly thrilled and this is what we set out to do. Our YouTube channel had loads of personalised lessons for us all! - Clinicians with the skill set these patients need do not grow on trees! So appointing people with the heart and ambition we need, and then to see them grow in their speciality is just such a joy. The clinicians are often the face of Accelerate, but behind the scenes the business team have set an amazing and highly professional framework in which to work – a far cry from our early days when everyone was spinning multiple plates! Everyone makes this company and our Big Idea a sustainable one! To see how others are taking on this mission with such creativity and big ideas is just incredible and very inspiring.
- Our reputation for excellence flows from points 1 and 2. I am so proud of this and the focus on ‘doing what it says on the tin’. A picture of the Ronseal ad was on our presentation to the PCT Board as we sought permission to ‘spin out’ from the NHS in 2010. To be honest I think they gave us 3 years max!
As I clear out my office, I have been reminded that Accelerate actually started many years ago – it’s early incarnation and ambition as a national service was the East London Wound Healing Centre led by Professor Gerry Bennett with Fran Worboys, Dr Richard Bull and Ina Farrelly. The recognition that many leg ulcers were avoidable was very much evident then and the push for a more creative approach to education – the hours I spent on an interactive CD ROM back in 2001!
I am so very pleased to pass the Accelerate Pink Baton on to Alpana Malde and the Senior Leadership Team made up of Caitriona, George, Kate and Beccy; what a team and I have no doubt that Accelerate will go from strength to strength with the support of the Board and Peter, our Chair. This is the right team for the next phase of Accelerate’s journey!
