Lesley qualified as a general nurse in 1984, and as a Sick Children’s Nurse in 1986. After several years in clinical practice during which time she completed her BSc, she pursued initially an academic career – gaining her MPhil – and later turning her attention to becoming a fulltime researcher. In a serendipitous turn, she secured a post with Professor Christine Norton at King’s College London in 2008, and over the next 9 years completed 12 research projects all related in some way to patient experiences of Inflammatory Bowel Disease and other chronic illnesses. She was awarded her PhD in 2014 for a hermeneutic phenomenological study of the experience of stigma in IBD. Lesley is an acknowledged qualitative researcher with a particular expertise in hermeneutic phenomenology. She is committed to enabling advanced study and academic progression in IBD CNSs, and regularly collaborates with these specialist nurses to deliver research projects addressing issues of relevance in clinical practice. She received her Chair from the University of Greenwich in August 2021.