Not many people can say “I absolutely love my job!” but I actually can because it is true. I am fortunate to meet truly inspirational children, young people, families, and healthcare professionals all striving to improve all aspects of health care through research. I began my career for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN) in 2005 as a full time Patient Involvement Manager. I am currently employed by the University of Liverpool (funded by various NIHR funded projects and European funding) as a senior Patient and Public Involvement Lead. My main role is to develop and implement a global strategy for involving children, young people, and their families in the design and delivery of paediatric research. I set up and currently support a national Young Person’s Advisory Group (YPAG) called GenerationR, which has enabled 100s of young people to have a voice in how health research is designed, which will ultimately have an impact on how young people and families are involved in health research now and in the future. The YPAG model that was developed here in Liverpool has now been developed Internationally, with networks such as the European Young Person’s Advisory Network (eYPAGnet) that I co-founded with my colleagues in Barcelona, Scotland and France.
In March 2020 I began a Hugh Greenwood Fellowship and began a PhD in child health at the University of Liverpool. The next few years are going to be extremely busy!
Aside from my professional life I have a daughter and son, and a beautiful granddaughter and grandson. I love to read, eat nice food accompanied by nice wine, travel, and meeting interesting people along the way. I also love gardening, oh and knitting (yes you heard correctly!!). I consider myself to be in a very fortunate position in life despite some set backs along the way and in the words of Maya Angelou ‘wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now’.
ABOUT THIS SITE
I decided to start writing about my work for anyone interested in health research and more importantly to highlight how patients, families and members of the public have the right to be involved in the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ research is designed and delivered to patients. Occasionally I even include a story about me, so watch this space!
FURTHERMORE
If you’re interested, please click here to take a look at my C.V highlighting a more comprehensive list of activities over the years. Thank you for taking time to visit my website, I hope you enjoy.
Very best wishes
Jenny
Jenny Preston 