Our Team
Our Team
Our aim is to equip professionals with the confidence, knowledge and skills to provide safe and sensitive care for parents and families.
Each Sands training event is facilitated by a trainer who is a subject specialist.
They bring their expertise to every session, sharing insights, understanding and tried-and-tested approaches that enable healthcare and workplace professionals to provide safe and sensitive care in the most difficult circumstances.
Our Team
Johanna Symanowski
Lead Trainer
Johanna has over 20 years’ experience in Learning and Development in many sectors including corporations and public sector and brings this experience to creating training and education content for Sands. She is passionate about supporting parents following a bereavement and improving maternity care standards through education.
Clare Worgan
Head of Training and Education
Clare’s previous career was in civil engineering as a project manager. However, when her daughter was stillborn she was inspired to become a midwife and started her midwifery degree the following year. Early in her midwifery career, Clare realised her passion for bereavement care and joined the team at Sands, initially as a Trustee and now as the Head of Training and Education. Clare is an advocate for trauma-informed maternity care and believes that communication, compassion and informed choice are vital for the wellbeing of bereaved parents and families.
Marc Harder
National Bereavement Care Pathway Project Lead
Marc has been the UK Lead for the National Bereavement Care Pathway at Sands since March 2017, responsible for developing, piloting, evaluating and rolling out the pathway, initially in England. The pathway covers five experiences of pregnancy and baby loss: miscarriage, TOPFA, stillbirth, neonatal death and SUDI and has now been adopted by more than 60% of NHS England hospital trusts. More recently the pathway has been launched in Scotland, where four early adopter sites are testing its guidelines and resources. Marc previously worked for many years as a Children’s Services Manager in Local Government and project manager in the private sector.
Kate Stanton
Sands Trainer
Kate Stanton has been involved with Sands in a number of different roles since 2004. First as a parent following the death of her son Louis shortly after birth and then as a befriender, Kate now works as a trainer for Sands, delivering Befriender Training to bereaved parents and Bereavement Support training to Health Professionals. This combines her professional background as an experienced children’s nurse and trainer with her passion for accessible, quality support for parents after the death of their baby at any stage of pregnancy.
Sophia Cross
Sands Trainer
Sophia has a background in education across a variety of disciplines including coaching, bereavement, safeguarding, and parenting. She has a particular interest in counseling and is currently undertaking a Foundation Degree in Integrative counseling practice. Sophia became involved with Sands after the stillbirth of her son Fred and has been a Sands Trainer since 2015. Through her volunteering work and her work as a Trainer, Sophia has seen firsthand the impact of grief, and the importance of good bereavement care for long-term emotional well-being.
Charlotte Bevan
Senior Research and Prevention Advisor
Charlotte’s daughter Hope died shortly after she was born in 2001 as a result of events in labour. She has worked at Sands since 2004 and advocates for the experiences of bereaved women and families to shape research and policy initiatives to improve maternity safety across the UK. As well as advising on several research studies, she is a Sands representative on the MBRRACE-UK and the Perinatal Mortality Review Tool (PMRT) collaborations, on the National Child Mortality Database in England and the National Hub in Scotland, a central data collection on children who die. She chaired the PMRT subgroup to develop resources for meaningful parent engagement in hospital review and has developed training in this area for health professionals.
HeatherJane Dangerfield
Sands Trainer
HJ has been involved with Sands for the past 16 years after reaching out for support following the loss of her son Xander. Finding nothing, she and her husband set up a Sands support group with two other mothers that still supports local parents and healthcare professionals. HJ is passionate about bereavement support. She has been successfully delivering training to healthcare professionals and Sands volunteers for 10 years, embracing new ways of teaching and the opportunities digital technology brings.
Lisa Rich
Healthcare Education Lead
Lisa is an experienced Registered Midwife with a passion for reducing the risk of perinatal death and improving bereavement care for families experiencing pregnancy and baby loss. Lisa progressed her career into the field of maternity bereavement, working as a Specialist Bereavement Midwife for 5 years. Whilst leading a hospital maternity bereavement service, Lisa implemented the National Bereavement Care Pathway, gained working knowledge of the MBRRACE-UK Perinatal Mortality Review Tool, and created and delivered training and educational resources for healthcare professionals and students. Lisa is responsible for the delivery of education programmes in hospitals, universities, and other related organisations across the UK, supporting professional development, enabling continued improvements in practice and helping save babies’ lives.
Fatima Bhula
Sands Trainer
Fatima has been involved in training and teaching for almost 20 years, initially as a qualified and practicing solicitor training tomorrow’s lawyers, then also working with and training health professionals for a national maternity and parenting charity. Fatima became involved with Sands 13 years ago following the loss of her daughter when she accessed support and later trained as a befriender. It was a natural progression for Fatima to take up the role of Bereavement care trainer in 2013 alongside her other roles.
Sarah Kiely
Lead Trainer
Sarah has been working as a trainer with Sands since 2016. Her passion for bereavement care started with working for a bereavement charity at age 18. In the following 20 years she trained as a secondary school teacher before combining education with roles in the voluntary sector, working with some of the UKs biggest charities and within the NHS. She also has an interest in using new technology to enhance traditional methods of delivering support, and has managed multi-channel bereavement support services.
Johanna Symanowski
Lead Trainer
Johanna has over 20 years’ experience in Learning and Development in many sectors including corporations and public sector and brings this experience to creating training and education content for Sands. She is passionate about supporting parents following a bereavement and improving maternity care standards through education.
Marc Harder
National Bereavement Care Pathway Project Lead
Marc has been the UK Lead for the National Bereavement Care Pathway at Sands since March 2017, responsible for developing, piloting, evaluating and rolling out the pathway, initially in England. The pathway covers five experiences of pregnancy and baby loss: miscarriage, TOPFA, stillbirth, neonatal death and SUDI and has now been adopted by more than 60% of NHS England hospital trusts. More recently the pathway has been launched in Scotland, where four early adopter sites are testing its guidelines and resources. Marc previously worked for many years as a Children’s Services Manager in Local Government and project manager in the private sector.
Clare Worgan
Head of Training and Education
Clare’s previous career was in civil engineering as a project manager. However, when her daughter was stillborn she was inspired to become a midwife and started her midwifery degree the following year. Early in her midwifery career, Clare realised her passion for bereavement care and joined the team at Sands, initially as a Trustee and now as the Head of Training and Education. Clare is an advocate for trauma-informed maternity care and believes that communication, compassion and informed choice are vital for the wellbeing of bereaved parents and families.
Kate Stanton
Sands Trainer
Kate Stanton has been involved with Sands in a number of different roles since 2004. First as a parent following the death of her son Louis shortly after birth and then as a befriender, Kate now works as a trainer for Sands, delivering Befriender Training to bereaved parents and Bereavement Support training to Health Professionals. This combines her professional background as an experienced children’s nurse and trainer with her passion for accessible, quality support for parents after the death of their baby at any stage of pregnancy.
Fatima Bhula
Sands Trainer
Fatima has been involved in training and teaching for almost 20 years, initially as a qualified and practicing solicitor training tomorrow’s lawyers, then also working with and training health professionals for a national maternity and parenting charity. Fatima became involved with Sands 13 years ago following the loss of her daughter when she accessed support and later trained as a befriender. It was a natural progression for Fatima to take up the role of Bereavement care trainer in 2013 alongside her other roles.
Sophia Cross
Sands Trainer
Sophia has a background in education across a variety of disciplines including coaching, bereavement, safeguarding, and parenting. She has a particular interest in counseling and is currently undertaking a Foundation Degree in Integrative counseling practice. Sophia became involved with Sands after the stillbirth of her son Fred and has been a Sands Trainer since 2015. Through her volunteering work and her work as a Trainer, Sophia has seen firsthand the impact of grief, and the importance of good bereavement care for long-term emotional well-being.
HeatherJane Dangerfield
Sands Trainer
HJ has been involved with Sands for the past 16 years after reaching out for support following the loss of her son Xander. Finding nothing, she and her husband set up a Sands support group with two other mothers that still supports local parents and healthcare professionals. HJ is passionate about bereavement support. She has been successfully delivering training to healthcare professionals and Sands volunteers for 10 years, embracing new ways of teaching and the opportunities digital technology brings.
Charlotte Bevan
Senior Research and Prevention Advisor
Charlotte’s daughter Hope died shortly after she was born in 2001 as a result of events in labour. She has worked at Sands since 2004 and advocates for the experiences of bereaved women and families to shape research and policy initiatives to improve maternity safety across the UK. As well as advising on several research studies, she is a Sands representative on the MBRRACE-UK and the Perinatal Mortality Review Tool (PMRT) collaborations, on the National Child Mortality Database in England and the National Hub in Scotland, a central data collection on children who die. She chaired the PMRT subgroup to develop resources for meaningful parent engagement in hospital review and has developed training in this area for health professionals.
Sarah Kiely
Lead Trainer
Sarah has been working as a trainer with Sands since 2016. Her passion for bereavement care started with working for a bereavement charity at age 18. In the following 20 years she trained as a secondary school teacher before combining education with roles in the voluntary sector, working with some of the UKs biggest charities and within the NHS. She also has an interest in using new technology to enhance traditional methods of delivering support, and has managed multi-channel bereavement support services.
Lisa Rich
Healthcare Education Lead
Lisa is an experienced Registered Midwife with a passion for reducing the risk of perinatal death and improving bereavement care for families experiencing pregnancy and baby loss. Lisa progressed her career into the field of maternity bereavement, working as a Specialist Bereavement Midwife for 5 years. Whilst leading a hospital maternity bereavement service, Lisa implemented the National Bereavement Care Pathway, gained working knowledge of the MBRRACE-UK Perinatal Mortality Review Tool, and created and delivered training and educational resources for healthcare professionals and students. Lisa is responsible for the delivery of education programmes in hospitals, universities, and other related organisations across the UK, supporting professional development, enabling continued improvements in practice and helping save babies’ lives.
