Helen is a public and patient contributor for the British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre and has been involved with the Smartphone and Wearables programme on a patient advisory steering group since May 2021.
She joined the project because she believes strongly in motivating and empowering people to prevent poor health and improve their health conditions.
As a data professional, she understands the important role that useable information plays in enabling people to better understand and advocate for their health, and in informing health professionals’ advice and decisions. She has a Master’s degree in research methods and is semi-retired from a career in analysis and service evaluation within the charity and public sectors. She now helps to run her own family business.
Helen was a keen fitness enthusiast until experiencing long-term issues after contracting COVID in March 2020. She has two grown-up sons, one of whom has had a chronic medical condition since early childhood. These experiences have given her a personal insight into feelings of vulnerability often experienced by patients and the importance of health research in providing better understanding, treatment and care.