Business Beats Cancer North East

Chris is a Director at Penshaw View, who specialise in apprenticeships, health and safety consultancy and training, HR Consultancy and commercial recruitment.      

Chris wants to do his part to bring the day that we do beat cancer forward and also make cancer treatments more specific and kinder.

Paul is Data and Funding Manager at Penshaw View and has over twenty years’ experience in Finance and Data processing. Paul lost his father to Prostate cancer only 5 months after being diagnosed and this had a huge impact on his family.  Paul is very keen to help BBC North East to be successful in raising as much money as possible for CRUK.

Laura Middleton, MD of Canny Social, a social media consultancy aiming to make social media more social. Canny social creates online communities with the aim of converting them into real life connections and events. 

Laura started as a photographer and videographer after spending her teenage years with a camera constantly around her neck. She’s always been visually creative but her passion took hold after her Mams passing, when she realised they had so few natural photos together. 

She was an amazing lady who had devoted her life to working in the NHS. My Mams side of the family has a long line of genetic Retinoblastoma and osteogenic sarcoma. 
Both her siblings and cousins were diagnosed as children and teens. The disease was never far from conversation growing up. Luckily, my Mam was not a carrier of the gene, however, she was diagnosed with unrelated Breast Cancer in the early 2000's, underwent treatment and a stint of remission before she became ill again and sadly passed in 2007 when I was 14. 

In the ten years that followed, we lost both of her parents and her sister, who had lost her leg to sarcoma at age 11. Sadly the cancer came back in 2017 and she passed suddenly due to complications. 

Originally from the North-East, Suzannah completed her University education to PhD level in Scotland, before returning to the region to start her career as a Cancer Research Scientist.

Suzannah is currently a Senior Research Associate in Medicinal Chemistry at Cancer Research UK’s Newcastle Drug Discovery Unit, based at Newcastle University and her work is focussed on finding new, novel and kinder treatments for precision oncology, targeting cancers that respond poorly to current therapies. 

She has first hand experience as to just how vital fundraising for CRUK is, as the research she undertakes is critically dependent on the funding received from the charity. 

Passionate about fundraising, outreach and engagement, Suzannah enjoys being part of Business Beats Cancer North East, capitalising on her unique position as a link between researchers and supporters and taking the opportunity to make even more of a contribution to a charity close to her heart.

Graeme is the managing director of Wearside Executive, an executive chauffeur service based in Washington. He brings with him life experience of dealing with cancer at 18 years old and dealing with its after affects for the last 20 years. This gives him the motivation to take on this new role and with the rest of the board, continue the work of previous years and raise money for the Newcastle Research Centre.

Philippa is a Director at Penshaw View, who specialise in apprenticeships, health and safety consultancy and training, HR Consultancy and commercial recruitment.     

Philippa is a passionate supporter of CRUK, having lost far too many loved ones to cancer. With years of fundraising experience she is excited to join the Business Beats Cancer board to support raising funds which are restricted to CRUK here in the North East of England.

'I’m Sector Principal – Manufacturing at Waterstons, a technology and growth consultancy which was founded in Durham nearly 30 years ago. I work with manufacturers to solve business problems. This usually involves working closely with clients on a mix of people, process and technology.

I wanted to contribute towards the valuable work of CRUK after attending the fundraising dinner last year. I was impressed by the charity; it’s not easy to strike the tone of an uplifting evening whilst still hitting home about the importance of the work and the reason for fundraising.

I’m really passionate about the North East being a great place to live, with really interesting and innovative STEM based work taking place in the region. I think it is important that we work toward solving some of the health based and other inequalities that the region experience, and this is my small contribution to that.'

"I’ve joined the Board, of Business Beats Cancer, to help and support Cancer Research UK in their drive to keep finding new ways to battle and prevent this awful disease. My father lost half his bowel and bladder to cancer when I was six years old. The impact on the family was huge as he was the major bread winner at the time. Great news, 35 years later he is still with us and is a wonderful grandfather to my two little ones. I would love to be able to thank everyone involved and this is my way of giving a little something back."

Head of Strategic Marketing and Communications, Pearson Engineering Ltd

Nicola Irving is a chartered marketing, brand, communications and social value professional with experience on a global scale. Her work has spanned delivering campaigns for Nike during the 2012 Olympics to providing equipment to overcome the threat of explosive ordnance to armed forces around the world. Her close friend’s ongoing battle with cancer has inspired energy, resilience and creativity in Nicola to do whatever is possible to support cancer research and the development of new treatments. In Nicola’s opinion, the North East’s tremendous track record in translating chemistry into treatments for patients deserves every bit of support we can offer as a business community.

Nicola is a director of Air Filters Ltd (AAF Europe) a global leader in air filtration, with a company mission to help protect your environment, improve health, reduce risk and optimize clean air. She is also very passionate about supporting Cancer Research due to losing family members to this horrific disease and her mother’s recent diagnosis, who she credits as her hero.

“I joined the board to help where I can in raising money for such an important battle against this disease which will affect each one of us at some point. A battle we need to win"

Service Delivery Manager at Newcastle based Seriös Group, experts in data solutions, specialising in systems and data integration, data analytics, test and qa.

Over the past few years, I have experienced my parents undergo a variety of treatments, to alleviate symptoms and slow down the growth of prostate and oesophageal cancer. Since my parents passed away, in 2021 and 2023, I have been looking for a way to help support CRUK in bringing new targeted treatments from the lab into hospitals. As part of the Business Beats Cancer board, I am keen to support, the raising, of as much as we can, to enable families to have more time with their loved ones.

Founded in 2005, O is an award-winning marketing agency based in the heart of Newcastle, helping businesses on a local, national and global scale to challenge the ordinary.

Kirsty is a fully time qualified chartered marketer, strategy and marketing effectiveness specialist. Having worked both in-house and agency side she has developed her skills over the last 16 years to lead clients across sectors to success. Kirsty supports businesses to develop and define actionable strategies, to build and structure marketing teams and to clearly understand and report on the true impact of their marketing activity.

Kirsty has always been passionate about fundraising for Cancer Research. This started after she lost her dad at 18 following a long battle with bowel cancer and has since helped to raise thousands of pounds through her workplace teams and personal fundraising activities. Her family history of cancer is hereditary, meaning some of her siblings are battling or have battled the disease, so she is really passionate about helping to drive the vital funds that will support other families just like hers.