Dr Gerald Clesham has been a consultant cardiologist in Essex for 20 years. He graduated from Clare College, Cambridge then qualified in Medicine at the University of Oxford Medical School. He trained in cardiology at the Hammersmith Hospital in London and at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge. During his cardiology training he completed a PhD degree in Cambridge, supported by the Medical Research Council.

He treats patients at the Essex Cardiothoracic Centre in Basildon and in Chelmsford. In his career he has developed many new cardiac services in Essex. In addition to clinical duties he leads the cardiology teaching at the new Essex Medical School and has national roles at the British Cardiovascular Intervention Society (BCIS) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). He lives in Chelmsford.

Dr Keeble trained in Cardiology within the London Chest Hospital, and performed international fellowships in Australia, and Switzerland. He was appointed as a consultant cardiologist in 2014 and is a specialist in coronary angioplasty and stenting at the Essex Cardiothoracic Centre.

He has a strong research interest in heart attack and cardiac arrest medicine, and is a recognized UK and European expert in the field. He chairs the BCIS focus group on Out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), and a founding member of the International Task Force for Cardiac Arrest Recovery (ITCAR) both formed to improve standards of acute care and long term follow up of cardiac arrest survivors and families. He is a Senior researcher at the Anglia Ruskin School of medicine and has supervised 7 MD / PhD students in the last 5 years. He has extensive experience in the development and first in human use of novel heart support devices, and is excited about raising charitable funds to support world class care, research and patient support to the people of Essex.

Fred Heddell was a special educationalist working in Essex and Suffolk for many years before becoming Chief Executive of the Royal Society Mencap in the 1990s. During that time, he was a writer and advisor on Disability for the BBC and Treasurer of Inclusion International, the worldwide network of organisations like Mencap. Since his retirement he has been actively involved as a Trustee and Chair of several local charities and has wide experience of establishing and developing voluntary organisations.

He has held a number of posts in statutory regulatory organisations and was a Non-Executive Director of Southend University Hospital Trust for 8 years until early 2020. He was awarded a CBE for his work with disabled people in 1999.

We are grateful to have His Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Essex, Jennifer Tolhurst, as Patron of Essex Heart Fund. The Lord Lieutenant is His Majesty the King’s personal representative in the county of Essex and the first woman to be appointed to the office in the county since it was established in the 1500s.