Margaret has been a Charter Member of Independent Age since its merger with Counsel and Care in 2011.
Following a career in NHS healthcare, as a registered nurse, later in management, Margaret became executive director of a patient safety focused organisation (ALARM). This organisation later merged into the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), to become a specialist section of the organisation. Margaret is a past Council Member (trustee) and vice-president, and now a life fellow of the Society.
Margaret has been active in the public, voluntary and community sector since 1991. She has been a trustee and chair of a wide range of organisations, ranging from, a Further Education and Adult College Corporation, to various charities supporting people with disabilities, carers, older people, and individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease. Currently, Margaret is a trustee of Carers UK and a trustee of a local charity, Crossroads Care, Richmond and Kingston, which provides respite and other services for carers. She is a member of SEEFA, (South-East England Forum on Ageing) and a past trustee of the Centre for Ageing Better. Over the years, public representation has been an important part of her commitment to securing improvements in support of the vulnerable in society, particularly where she can speak from direct experience. This representation has included campaigning, and national media contributions.
Since the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) School of Social Care Research was first set up in 2009, Margaret has been involved in social care research and holds a part-time role within the Care Policy Evaluation Centre (social care research department) at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She contributes to a range of research projects, particularly relating to dementia and older people; she is a past carer of her husband and mother, who both had Alzheimer’s disease.