Welcome to Heroes Unmasked. Staff stories from Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust with Caroline Verdon.

Here's a question for you - what do champion fencers, award winning sheep farmers and professional rugby players have to do with Leeds Teaching Hospitals?

Answer? They all work for the hospitals.

This series goes behind the scenes to meet directors, doctors, support staff and everyone in between to find out who the people behind the masks really are.  

New series launches on Tuesday 4th January at 8am

In this episode, Caroline Verdon meets Mark O'Byrne. He's the Personal Safety Trainer for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust but he's also an ex-submariner who at one point was Royal Navy Scotland's Fencing Champion!

Heroes Unmasked is an Under The Mast audio production

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In this episode, Caroline Verdon meets Dr Agam Jung, Consultant Neurologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. She's the director of the Leeds Regional Motor Neurone Disease Care Centre but is perhaps best known as Rob Burrow's consultant and one of the people behind the appeal for the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease.

What a lot of people don't realise is that she spent 3 months living in a Leper Colony and has very much devoted her life to helping others to live in the now.

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Heroes Unmasked is an Under The Mast audio production

In this episode, Caroline Verdon meets Mr Chris Parsons. He works at Leeds Children's Hospital and is a Consultant Paediatric General and Neonatal Surgeon with a subspecialist interest in colorectal. It's a job that involves decades of academic study with a structured career ladder and expectations on when to reach each rung. When he reached 30, Chris had an early midlife crisis. Going against all advice he left his career, went on what some might call an ill-advised adventure but found himself gaining perspective, and a real love for his work that he'd left behind.

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Heroes Unmasked is an Under The Mast audio production

Caroline's guest this week is Megan Holmes. She is a play specialist on the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Leeds Children's Hospital but what a lot of people don't know about her is that she is also a champion sheep farmer and has over 100 sheep, alpacas, shire horses, cats and dogs at home!

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Heroes Unmasked is an Under The Mast audio production

This week Caroline chats with Dr Paul Jones. He's the Chief Digital Information Officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and has a background in technology with a PhD in Computer Science. His role involves managing large teams of people, a lot of project managing and rolling out huge technological advancements across the trust so to relax, as well as cycing and hillwalking, he is also a keen bird watcher.

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Heroes Unmasked is an Under The Mast audio production

This week Caroline Verdon meets Tracey Campey. Until she was 40 she worked in schools until a staff meeting had her make a decision to retrain, to get her qualifications, go to uni and become a midwife and that decision would change her life.

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Heroes Unmasked is an Under The Mast audio production

This week Caroline Verdon meets Ester Jamera who is a Senior Project Nurse at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and she's also a published author, despite the fact that a year ago she thought she couldn't write. Ester talks about her driving force behind the book and how she overcame her self -limiting belief.

'Amplifying Voices: Mending Divides' contains 14 deeply personal stories from BME and non-BME staff and partners at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and represents a mojor step in the trust becoming an anti-racist and inclusive organisation. You can find out more and purchase the book here

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Heroes Unmasked is an Under The Mast audio production