Carmel Dersch (Chair)
Carmel worked in the National Health Service for many years, originally in London, and then in Liverpool when she moved there in the 1970s. Although retired now, she continues to work on health and community issues.
She was a founding member and chair of the Toxteth Health and Community Care Forum which ran for many years in one of Liverpool’s poorest and multicultural areas. She also chaired the Liverpool Chinese Community Health Committee for several years and works actively with the Liverpool health services on cancer awareness and supporting the Walks for Health project.
She is also a Trustee for the Merseyside Refugee Support Network. She is a keen rambler and is Membership Secretary for the Merseyside HF Ramblers, and she enjoys reading, films, theatre and good eating out with friends.
Jenni Pizer (Secretary)
Jenni trained as a Paediatric Nurse at Bristol Children’s Hospital and subsequently specialised in cardiothoracic and paediatric intensive care nursing at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, moving to the Wirral in 1995.
She has previously worked at Alder Hey and was a school nurse for many years. She first visited Nepal in 1985 when she originally fell in love with the country and its people.
She has since returned many times both as a supporter of the charity and of the country.
Anne Lang (Treasurer)
Anne is a qualified accountant with many years of experience in a number of sectors including Professional Practice, Industry, Education and Charities.
Having previously advised smaller charities whilst working for national accountancy firm, Anne now works in the finance department of Alder Hey Children’s Charity.
Barry Pizer (Medical Lead)
Barry graduated from the University of Bristol in 1981 and trained in paediatrics and paediatric oncology at a number of centres, including Bristol Children’s Hospital, University Hospital Nottingham and Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Barry is a prominent member of the national Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG) and has sat on the Executive group of the CCLG. He has a particular interest in tumours of the central nervous system in children and young people, and has chaired the CCLG CNS Tumour Division.
He was Chair of the CCLG Supportive Care Working Group and founded both the CCLG Mouth Care Group and Good Ideas Group. He is the Chair of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology Brain Tumour Group and has led on a number of national and international clinical trials.
He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Liverpool. Barry is committed to helping to provide support for paediatric oncology in developing countries (PODC) and was the founder of the CCLG PODC Group. He has helped develop paediatric oncology units in Nepal, Cameroon and Bosnia.
Dr Deepak Raj Upadhyay
Deepak is from Nepal. After his MBBS and paediatrics post-graduation (MD) in India, he worked in paediatrics in Nepal before moving to the UK.
He obtained MRCP & MRCPCH in 1996 and M Med Sci in Child Health in 2008 from the University of Leeds. After working in General Paediatrics and Neonatology in different Hospitals in the UK, he has been working in Community Paediatrics since 2008. He moved to Cumbria in 2017 as Consultant Community Paediatrician.
He is an executive member of the George Still Forum-Specialty Interest Group for ADHD in children of the Royal College of Paediatrics. Deepak has facilitated the development of an Advanced Paediatric Life Support Course for doctors and nurses in Kanti Children’s Hospital and Child Protection Training Courses across Nepal.
Ester Mufti
Ester was born in Malta. She is a mother and grandmother.
She started off as a Primary School Teacher and has stayed involved in childcare and education most of her life.
In 1990, she set up the Translation and Interpreting Service for Merseyside. She opened and ran a residential children’s home for five years and worked part-time as an adult tutor (mostly as an ESOL teacher) working mainly with refugees, asylum seekers and children under five.
She is now retired.
Pete Arrowsmith
Pete trained as an adult and paediatric nurse in Alder Hey in 1988. He worked there for 30 years, mainly in the Emergency Department, and was head of the Resuscitation Department until 2019 when he emigrated to Doha, Qatar, where he works as a Resuscitation Manager.
Due to the Covid pandemic, he has been working in the industrial area field hospital looking after migrant workers.
Pete is the lead Trustee for the Advanced Paediatric Life Support (APLS) project, started in 2007.
Pete has been married for 28 years to Maureen, also a nurse, who currently works for Weil Cornwell Medical School in Qatar. They have two grown up sons, James and Shawn, who also work in the health service.
Siân Falder
Siân qualified in Medicine from St Mary’s Hospital Medical School (now part of Imperial) in 1992 and has been a Consultant in Burns and Plastic Surgery at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital since 2008. She is the Lead Clinician for the Alder Hey Burns Unit as well as providing a general paediatric plastic surgery service.
Siân is committed to working to reduce global health inequalities, especially in the neglected area of burns and soft tissue trauma, which cause lifelong suffering and disability.
She first visited Nepal as part of a medical mountaineering expedition in 1994 and is now proud to be a Trustee of So the Child May Live.
Siân has established a strong Burn Unit partnership with the Unit in Kanti and, together with other members of Alder Hey’s burns team, visits Kanti once or twice a year.
Tracie Cousineau
Tracie joined Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in 2009 and is currently a Project Manager for new business development and PM for International Child Health.
Tracie has a passion to help children in any way possible and is extremely experienced in event management, marketing and project planning.
Gareth Falder
Gareth has worked as an IT Training Specialist in the legal sector for over 20 years. He has travelled extensively with work across Europe, Asia and Africa.
Gareth has had close ties with So the Child May Live for over a decade, completing several fundraising events and getting involved with many of the charity’s activities.
He created this website and keeps it up to date as well as looking after social media, information security and data protection.
Gareth is a DJ and music producer and enjoys gardening and cooking.