Meet The Team

Dennis was born in Glasgow in 1956 and moved to East Kilbride in 1962 with his parents.

Dennis Gallagher graduated from Strathclyde University in 1978 with an Honours degree in Economics and Geography.

He joined Leyland Vehicles and worked with them and Leyland DAF for 11 years, qualified as an accountant and enjoyed a successful career culminating in the position of Supplies Director for Leyland DAF in 1989.

Dennis left to set up a consultancy specialising in Quality and Customer Service in 1989 along with his wife Clare.

They ran the company for 22 years employing over 30 staff before retiring in 2011.

Dennis has been involved with a number of East Kilbride charities and has worked with Kilbryde Hospice since its inception in a voluntary capacity. Dennis became the Finance Director in 2005 and became Chairman on the demise of the founding Chairman, Tony McGuinness a few years later.

My motivation is to ensure that we create a resource for all in our area who are life-limited or who have a range of terminal illnesses and together with their families are offered a range of caring, competent, and high quality services which respond to their individual needs.

It is my intention to closely work with South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership along with the voluntary and independent sectors to promote and develop our influence and to raise standards in palliative and end of life care across all settings which is essential to improving the environment in which we all operate.

This approach will lead to longer term improvements in the provision of hospice care, and access to it, by local people.

Mb ChB with Distinction in Medicine. 1968 University of Glasgow.
Fellow of Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh 1974. Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and Physicians Glasgow 1976. Doctor of Philosophy, University of Glasgow 1979.
Consultant Surgeon, Lanarkshire Health Board 1980-2007, Clinical Sub Dean University of Glasgow, Faculty of Medicine 1995-2007.
Founding Director Kilbryde Hospice Appeal 2001.
Director and Company Secretary Kilbryde Hospice 2009- to date.
Trustee Sense Scotland 2016- to date.
MBE for services to Palliative Care South Lanarkshire 2017.

Adam Ingram served as a Member of Parliament for 23 years, representing East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow and the surrounding villages. He was a senior Government minister in Tony Blair’s Labour Government, serving as Security Minister in the Northern Ireland Office from 1997-2001 and as Minister for the Armed Forces from 2001-2007. Prior to entering Parliament, Adam was an East Kilbride councillor and was Leader of the Council from 1984-1987. From 2012-2017,

Adam served as Honorary Colonel of 154 (Scottish) Regiment RLC and is currently Honorary President of East Kilbride Sea Cadets. Although retired, Adam retains an active interest in his local community and has been involved with Kilbryde Hospice from the beginning, firstly as a Trustee and currently as a Director.

I began fund raising in memory of my sister Donna who passed away in 2011. Donna was previously the advocate for fundraising in our family which I took over after her passing. It has been a rewarding experience to take over this role and carry on her legacy as part of an admirable team at the hospice. Having been given the go ahead to open the Donna Mortimer Inpatient Wing has filled my Family and myself with such joy in accomplishing my sisters dream.

We could not have done this without the help from the hospice, fellow directors and committee members, I am extremely grateful for the opportunities I have received being in this role. It has really opened my eyes to the lives of others and I know myself Donna would have been overjoyed with the work being done here.

In 1985 Lady Haughey set up City Refrigeration Holdings Ltd with her husband Willie. She has been a Director and owner for the past 32 years. City is now a global business employing approximately 12,000 people across the UK, France, Australia, Asia and North America.

In 2002 they set up the City Charitable Trust, funding it from profits and allowing them to donate to deserving causes including Kilbryde Hospice where she has been a Director for 6 years.

In 2016 she was delighted to receive a CBE for services to Business and Philanthropy in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

On 13^th November 2017, Lady Haughey was honoured and privileged to be appointed the 22^nd Lord Lieutenant of Lanarkshire.

As a senior strategic HR professional for over 20 years Fiona joined the board of Directors responsible for the HR Strategy for the Hospice in May 2017. Passionate about helping her community and its people, Fiona will help assist the Hospice through a significant period of change as they prepare to provide an inpatient facility for the local community.

With a MSc in HR Management and an active Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Fiona is currently the Head of HR for the UK & Ireland at SD Worx where she has held this position for 8 years.

In her spare time Fiona loves spending time with her family and her dog Jack. Fiona is very health conscious and enjoys going to the gym as well as socialising with friends.

Gretta has been involved with KIlbryde Hospice since its inception in 2001, with the aim of raising the funds to build a hospice in South Lanarkshire.

She is the widow of Kilbryde Hospice founder, Tony McGuinness and with him worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the need to develop palliative care facilities within the area. Over the years, she has been an ardent fundraiser for the hospice and had played a significant role in involving the community in the project. She is an active board member with responsibility for volunteer liaison.

Gretta lives in East Kilbride. She has four daughters, seven grandchildren and one great grandchild.

I joined Kilbryde Hospice in February 2017 after being involved as a volunteer and helping out at various fundraising events. I first got involved with the hospice as a close friend of director Donna Mortimer Ballantyne, who our in-patient wing is named after. I have been a business owner for 20 years, but after volunteering at Erskine Hospital for a year (because of my husband and son’s strong military links), I decided that I wanted to work in charity full time and have never looked back. Interesting fact about me: I am a Liverpool FC season ticket holder.

Margaret Mary Cowan MSc Advanced Practice (Palliative Care) Kings College, London

I trained as a Registered Nurse at in 1985 and as a Registered Midwife in 1987. During my working life I have lived and worked in Glasgow, Doha, Qatar, and Western Isles and latterly in North West Kent. My introduction to palliative care was in Western Isles where we delivered palliative care in Daliburgh Hospital, South Uist. Life then took me to Kent for 17 years working for ellenor hospice where I ultimately worked as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner predominantly in the community. I returned to my home town of East Kilbride in April 2015 to take up the post of Clinical Services Manager. I have never looked back.

A little known fact is that I was once in the west of Scotland Synchronised swimming team and I still have the nose clips!

Anna originally trained at the London College of Music, graduating with honours in 1991.  Faced with the dilemma of paying rent for her accommodation, she did not return home to Scotland after her studies as planned, but embarked on a career in music publishing, copyright and sales.  It took another 15 years before she took the bold decision to give up work and to re-train as a music therapist.  Undertaking postgraduate training at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, she qualified as a music therapist in 2006.  Since then she has worked as a music therapist in various fields with both adults and children including hospice/palliative care, education, dementia care, brain injury, visual impairment and neurological impairment.

She has worked for the hospice since August 2013, initially on a freelance basis, and is now employed 2 days a week to provide individual and group music therapy sessions.  Anna also runs the Kilbryde Community Choir.

Anna has presented her work at various conferences and events including the York Festival of Ideas, the British Association for Music Therapy conference, the Hospice UK conference and the Scottish Forum for Head Injury. August 2019 sees the publication of Anna’s book, “Music Therapy in Children and Young People’s Palliative Care” which she edited and co-authored.

I joined Kilbryde Hospice in February 2017 after being involved as a volunteer and helping out at various fundraising events. I first got involved with the hospice as a close friend of director Donna Mortimer Ballantyne, who our in-patient wing is named after. I have been a business owner for 20 years, but after volunteering at Erskine Hospital for a year (because of my husband and son’s strong military links), I decided that I wanted to work in charity full time and have never looked back. Interesting fact about me: I am a Liverpool FC season ticket holder.

Hi, I’m Claire and I joined the fundraising team at Kilbryde Hospice in February 2018. I graduated from University of the West of Scotland with a degree in Events Management in 2017 and was interested in working in a Fundraising environment. I know the amazing care that patients and families receive within the hospice environment and now that I can be part of making a positive difference I cannot wait to see how Kilbryde Hospice will grow. The hospice is such a lovely place to work and I love how no two days are the same.

Following a short 4 years in the Armed Forces and traveling to and living in such faraway places as the Falklands, Kenya and Germany, I joined a Finance Company where I was employed for 30 plus years in various middle and senior management roles also gaining a HND in HR at Caledonian University.

In July 2017 I joined Kilbryde Hospice in a new role as Corporate Services Manager covering the key functions of Facilities, Finance and HR. The role has a lot of diversity and no day is the same as the next.

I believe this is the most rewarding environment anyone could ever want to work, it just feels right knowing what I do supports others to make a difference in someone’s life.

I became a volunteer with Kilbride Hospice in October 2012 in their Hamilton store. I had never worked in a retail environment before, but I enjoyed it from the first day. I met new people and developed new skills. I became an assistant retail manager in April 2014 and have worked in our Hamilton and East Kilbride stores and also more recently in our warehouse. I enjoy my job very much especially working with different volunteers every day but also knowing that our hard work benefits the Hospice. Outside of work I enjoy listening to music and spending time with my family and friends.

Hi. My name is Agnes Barwood. I am an Assistant Retail Manager in the Hamilton Discount Store. I have worked for Kilbryde Hospice since January 2017. The things I enjoy most about my job are encouraging, leading and developing our volunteers skills enabling them to be more confident within themselves and others around them. I take pride in all aspects of my job, knowing what I am capable of doing can help make a difference with the people we encounter and also helping the Hospice to succeed. In my spare time I enjoy spending quality time with my family.