Grazina Berry, CEO Grazina joined the Aplastic Anaemia Trust in January 2018 as its new CEO Expand Grazina Berry, CEO Grazina joined the AAT in January 2018 as its new CEO and brings with her extensive experience of patient-focused and innovative support provision, transformational business strategy development and implementation, research and organisational excellence obtained in the not-for-profit and public sectors. Most recently, Grazina was the Group Director of Performance, Quality and Innovation at the Richmond Fellowship, a national mental health services provider, where she was instrumental in the organisation’s growth, improvement and journey towards greater user focus. Grazina lives in Cambridgeshire with her family and a dog, enjoys reading, the theatre, keeping fit and baking. You can contact Grazina on [email protected]
Laura Sousa, Patient Outreach Programme Co-ordinator Laura joined the AAT team in September 2019 as the new Patient Outreach Programme Co-ordinator Expand Laura joined the AAT in September 2019 as Patient Outreach Programme Co-ordinator. Laura supports patients and families dealing with Aplastic Anaemia by bringing them together to connect and access helpful information at dedicated meetings held across the UK. Laura feels passionately about working with those affected by AA as she was diagnosed with the disease herself in 2016, undergoing ATG, a trial of Eltrombopag and finally a successful sibling Stem Cell Transplant in 2018. Since graduating from the University of Manchester, Laura's career has focussed on marketing, communications and events in roles for the NHS, and both the not-for-profit and private sectors. Laura lives in Manchester with her husband, two children and cheeky cat. She enjoys making new friends, going to the theatre and discovering new places on family holidays. You can contact Laura on [email protected]
Leena O'Hara, Programme Manager, MarrowKidz The AAT welcomed Leena on board in November 2019 as our new Programme Manager Expand Leena joined the AAT in November 2019 as Programme Manager. She is working in collaboration with the Aplastic Anaemia community and our new Digital Collaborator, MindWave, to develop a creative and interactive resource library aimed at children, young people and their families. During her career, Leena has championed for the best provision for children and young people. As a qualified Playworker and Primary Teacher, she has worked with children, young people and families in both formal and informal settings. These early experiences have shaped her child-centred approach to her work. A significant part of Leena’s career was dedicated to working on the National Healthy Schools Programme for Warwickshire, where she led on improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people, in the context of schools. She successfully delivered the national qualification in Personal, Social, Health Education for teachers and contributed to the Post Graduate training for newly qualified teachers at Warwick University. Leena lives in Warwickshire with her family. She has a passion for ornamental trees after starting the painstaking restoration of a neglected garden. When she’s not outside, Leena enjoys going to comedy gigs because sometimes laughter is the best medicine! You can contact her on [email protected]
The Team In addition to the full-time CEO, the AAT team consists of 2 part-time paid staff and a group of volunteers Expand Dedicated part-time fundraising and administrative support constitute the AAT's paid staff team. A group of volunteers work with us providing excellent and much-needed project management, marketing and patient support capacity.