About us
We are a UK-based charity providing information and support to people living with pain, and their healthcare professionals.
Our story
Pain Concern was founded on April 26th, 1995. We grew out of a patient group formed to consult on the 1994 Lothian Health Board Chronic Pain Needs Assessment. For ten years we ran Astley Ainslie’s pain management support group. Right from the start we were interested in policy and involved in local campaigning, acting as secretary of the Scottish Parliament’s Cross-Party Group on Chronic Pain from 2003 to 2012. The work of the group was influential in achieving the Scottish Government’s appointment of a national lead clinician for chronic pain. We have since expanded our activities to work with pain departments, medical specialists and volunteers across the UK.
Our work on providing information about pain began with the launch of Pain Matters magazine in 1995. It has continued through the production of leaflets that are now popular with pain clinics, physiotherapy departments and people living with pain. In 2009 Pain Concern was awarded first place in the NAPP Chronic Pain Awards, receiving a grant of £10,000 to develop an internet radio show. This allowed us to start a very successful collaboration with Sony-award-winning broadcaster Paul Harvard Evans, who has now produced over 150 episodes of our Airing Pain podcast.
In 2017 we published groundbreaking research, ‘Barriers to Self-Management of Chronic Pain in Primary Care’, in the British Journal of General Practice. This led to the development of our Navigator Tool in 2018. In 2024, the tool was adapted and included in NICE’s Patient Decision Aid for Chronic Primary Pain (published by NHS England, 2024; adopted by NHS Education Scotland, 2024). The tool is now used across Scotland and Canada.
We collaborate with organisations that share our goals, such as the British Pain Society (BPS) and the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). We are founding members of Pain UK, an alliance of charities for people in pain. We are part of the Scottish Government’s Pain Management Task Force and affiliates of the Chronic Pain Policy Coalition. Most recently, we have worked with the NHS to provide the Pain Education Session, which covers the basics of pain and its management.
Our team
We believe that pain is best faced by the ‘pain community’ of people with pain and their healthcare professionals. This ideal is reflected in the make-up of our team.
Our patrons
Our patrons are Dame Anne Begg and Professor Sir Michael Bond. Anne was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2011 in recognition of her tireless campaigning for equal opportunities and the interests of disabled people. She has been particularly committed to lobbying for better provision of pain relief services. Michael is Emeritus Professor of Psychological Medicine at the University of Glasgow and, among many honours, was knighted in 1995 for Services to Medicine. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on the psychological aspects of pain.
Our trustees
The charity trustees comprise the members of the Executive Committee.
John Finch
BVM&S, MSc, DLAS, FRCPath, MRCVS
Trustee since
23 August 2018
Role
Hon. Treasurer
Biography
Born August 1954, John is a veterinary surgeon who has worked in general practice, tropical disease investigation (in Yemen), veterinary pathology and animal welfare. For most of his career he worked in senior scientific and management roles. He has experience of charity management in the arts and during his career has led three professional societies. He has volunteered with Pain Concern since its inception.
Michael Serpell
MB ChB, ECFMG, FRCA, FFPMRCA
Trustee since
7 November 2019
Role
Co-Chair, Senior Safeguarding Lead
Biography
Born December 1959, Mick Serpell is a consultant in anaesthesia and pain medicine for NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, and a senior lecturer at Glasgow University. He is series editor for Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine; is associate editor for Pain Management; sits on the Advisory Board for the European Journal of Pain; and reviews articles for several other pain-related journals. He is examiner for the FFPMRCA for the Royal College of Anaesthetists.
He has received honoraria from Astellas, Grünenthal, NAPP and Pfizer for speaking at meetings. His institution has received research support in the past 5 years from numerous commercially sponsored studies.
Cathy Price
MB BCH, DCH, FRCA, FFPMRCA
Trustee since
01 July 2021
Role
Co-Chair, Medical Advisor
Biography
Cathy is a consultant in pain medicine in Southampton, where she has worked since 1999. She provides medical services for people with long-term pain. To do this she works in a multidisciplinary pain clinic, providing theatre lists for nerve blocks and covering inpatient wards. Cathy is also a clinical director at Solent NHS Trust for a variety of differing services, including general practice and musculoskeletal services. She undertakes research into several aspects of pain management, including the effectiveness of nerve blocks, employment issues with pain and developing pain registries. Cathy also led a National Pain Audit for four years and won a Medical Futures award for Innovation in 2005. She was made an honorary member of the British Pain Society in 2014.
Patricia Roche
MCSP, BSc (Hons), MSc Psych, PhD
Trustee since
05 July 2023
Role
Trustee
Biography
Pat is a physiotherapist by first profession. She then completed a BSc Hons and MSc in psychology (University of Stirling, the late ’70s). Her MSc looked at the evaluation of TENS for joint pain in haemophilia and the multidimensional assessment of chronic pain. Her PhD (University of Queensland, 1998) examined the multidimensional prediction of pain in rheumatoid arthritis. She taught pain science and chronic pain management to physiotherapy students in Australia and Scotland from 1980 to 2022. Principal teaching posts were at the University of Queensland (15 years) and Queen Margaret University (7 years).
Pat has been convener and chair of the IASP Special Interest Group on Pain and Movement (5 years); associate editor of the Physiotherapy journal (10 years); convener of ‘Let’s Move Pain’, a 3-day symposium on pain research for Australian physiotherapists; convener and principal lecturer of ‘People in Pain’, an elective module for health and social science postgraduates; associate lecturer on the postgraduate and pre reg. MSc modules on pain (University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Napier University); and tutor of pain education for Pain Concern helpline volunteers. Her main research areas and publications are on TENS for MSK conditions; cancer and arterial disease; pain in survivors of torture; and placebo analgesia.
Heather Wallace
Role
CEO, Deputy for Safeguarding
Biography
Heather is the founder and chief executive of Pain Concern.
Ian Taverner
Trustee since
01 March 2025
Role
Trustee
Biography
Ian held a 25-year career in financial services, ultimately as managing director and board member of a large international multi-jurisdictional company.
Following significant changes in his and his family’s health, between them now living with various chronic conditions, he embarked on a new career, authoring the bestselling cookbook, Cookfulness, which is designed specifically for people who find cooking difficult, either by disability and/or chronic illness.
Ian is now a hugely sought-after cooking and lifestyle coach, working with global charities and organisations.
Ian is also chair of the CRIISP (Consortium Researching the Individual, Interpersonal and Societal impact of Chronic Pain) Public Advisory Group and a member of the Core and Governance Oversight Team, working to ensure that public contributors are key partners with researchers.
Ian is a regular guest speaker and expert panel member on global health and wellbeing webinars and seminars.
Amanda Williams
BSc, MSc, PhD, CPsychol
Trustee since
01 March 2025
Role
Trustee
Biography
Amanda C de C Williams is professor of clinical health psychology at University College London, a clinical psychologist recently retired from the NHS, and section editor for psychology on the journal PAIN. She qualified as a clinical psychologist in 1985 and worked for many years in inpatient and outpatient pain management, but increasingly moved towards research, completing her PhD in 1996. Her particular research interests are: evaluation of psychologically based treatments by systematic review and meta-analyses; trustworthiness of data; evolutionary perspectives on pain; behavioural expression of pain and its interpretation by clinicians; pain from torture and its better recognition and treatment; wearable technology to extend healthcare into patients’ own environments; and psychological models of visceral pain. She has presented at many national and international pain meetings and written over 350 papers and chapters: more information here.
Tim Atkinson
BA (Hons), PGCE, DipLCR, MA (EdMan), FRSA
Role
Trustee
Biography
Tim Atkinson is a former teacher and freelance writer who has written for the Guardian, Reader’s Digest, Irish Times, Daily Mail and TES, and appeared on national TV and radio. He is the author of several books, including the memoir Where Does it Hurt? about life with chronic pain. He is currently involved both in national training programmes for healthcare professionals and in developing support materials for patients. In addition he has several national leadership roles, including chair of the British Pain Society’s Expert Patient and Carer Committee (EPCC) and patient representative for the Physiotherapy Pain Association. He has been a PPIE (Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement) co-researcher on projects based at the University of Plymouth, Brunel University of London and Trinity Laban Conservatoire.
Sophie Meadows
BA (Hons)
Role
Trustee
Biography
Sophie is a project manager at Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS), with a professional background in the charity sector. She has held a range of roles managing fundraising projects and leading strategic campaigns, with a particular focus on infrastructure, process improvement and change management to support organisational growth. Sophie brings extensive experience in charity operations, alongside a strong commitment to inclusive governance. She also brings lived experience of chronic pain, having managed long-term pain from gynaecological conditions for over three years. This has given her deep insight into the challenges faced by young women in pain, a group often underrepresented in policy and care. She is passionate about ensuring that voices like hers are heard at all levels of decision making.
