Jo has over 13 years in stoma care, trained in London and has spent most of her working life in the stoma industry in various clinical roles. After qualifying, spent a year working in a street clinic in Calcutta, India.
Has been stoma care specialist nurse in a number of hospitals including London and has been in her current position in Kingston and Richmond community for over 15 years where she leads a very busy service in the community.

Particularly interested in peristomal skin disorders and sucessful discharge from the acute to the community sector. Her real passion is education- passing on her knowledge especially to developing countries and worked with a charity in Romania that involved teaching and mentoring nurses in stoma care. Now teaches occasionally and examines on the stoma care course in London.

Presented at both international and national stoma care conferences. Published numerous articles in key UK nursing journals and published 2 chapters for stoma care books.
Since 2008 been involved in stoma care clinical seminars for qualified nurses including WOCNs in many countries including Japan, Iran and South Africa.

Served from 2006-2010 as an honorary officer for WCET UK and is now on the global WCET Educational committee. Recently became a trustee for the ASCN UK

Natasha Rolls began her nursing career at St Thomas’ hospital in London and, after qualifying, worked in both medicine and surgery before becoming a ward sister and then taking the post of stoma care nurse, covering both sites at guys and St Thomas’.

She then left the capital as her family grew and took a career break to raise her children, before completing a ‘back to practice’ qualification in 2012.

She returned to colorectal surgical nursing at Gloucester Royal Hospital and then took a post of Stoma Care Nurse Specialist at UHBW, Bristol Royal Infirmary, in 2015.

In 2017 she progressed to Lead Stoma Care Nurse Specialist and has been focussed on her determination to bring service improvement and positive recognition to the team. As a leading member of a task force committed to raising the profile of the stoma care nursing profession Natasha has co-authored a paper which provides guidance for leaders in commissioning best practice services and exposing the value of expert stoma care nurses. This work led to Natasha and her co-authors being awarded BjN stoma care nurse of the year 2020.

She presents regularly, winning ASCN best oral presenter in 2019, and has written and presented through many mediums including national webinars on a variety of stoma care related subjects such as skin health, using validated tools and helping ostomates to adapt and thrive following stoma formation. Natasha is an enthusiastic advocate for patients, is passionate about ‘busting the stoma stigma’ and is determined to improve services with the patient at the front and centre, believing that this can only happen through collaboration with ‘experts by experience’.

She has also been known to contribute to a podcast, or two, and is as passionate about the nursing profession as she is about nursing and will mount her soap box on the subject given even half a chance.

In her spare time, she has 4 (nearly adult) children, 2 dogs, 5 ducks and a very patient husband, is an Agatha Christie devotee and red wine connoisseur.

I have been a qualified nurse for over 38 years, the last 23 years working as a Senior Specialist Nurse within the Stoma/Colorectal Nursing Team at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. My role is multi-faceted, having my own clinical caseload of patients undergoing stoma formation, providing pre- and post-operative information, teaching and support, and collaboratively caring for patients with abdominal laparostomy and fistulae, and have participated in several research trials and audits. I jointly facilitate the specialist nurse led Ileo-anal pouch follow up clinic, helping and supporting the patient support group The Kangaroo Club.

I have a particular interest in those patients undergoing Small Bowel Transplantation, publishing an article in 2013, presenting nationally and internationally on several occasions.

I supervise and support junior team colleagues and student nurses on placement with the team, provide formal and informal educational support to other healthcare professionals at the trust and undertake lectures at Oxford Brookes University on stoma care. I’ve had the honour of presenting at 4 UK & 5 International conferences on behalf of the team.

I wrote a team PGD protocol and co-wrote the competency framework, as well as the national guideline for Association of Stoma Care Nurses UK on the management of Pyoderma Gangrenosum. I am a reviewer for the British Journal of Nursing and World Council of Enteral-stomal Therapy International congress abstracts.

Between 2014-2017 I was Honorary Secretary on the committee of The Association of Stoma Care Nurses UK (ASCN UK), representing the association on many occasions and collaboratively organising the yearly conference and various educational events, instigating the thrice yearly meeting of the ASCN regional area representatives. In September 2018 I was voted ASCN UK Stoma Nurse of the Year. In Autumn 2023, I became a Trustee of ASCN UK.

Melanie is the lead Stoma Care Nurse Specialist at Chelsea and Westminster Foundation Trust, with over 20 years experience in stoma care. She feels passionately about the vital role stoma nurses play within the lives of patients when they are at their most vulnerable, advocating for, and empowering them to physically recover and psychologically adapt. To that end, for the last 6 years, her team have developed and run well-being classes, teaching exercises for core strength and encouraging a return to fitness, and providing a forum for patient discussion.

More recently she has developed the specialist nursing role within the IBD and Ileoanal Pouch Surgery centre at Chelsea and Westminster, and is undertaking a Quality Improvement Project working with Dermatologists to audit and develop a pathway for peristomal ulceration.