Meet our team who make up the National Severe Insulin Service
Dr Anna Stears, NSIRS Clinical Lead, Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology
Dr Anna Stears completed her clinical postgraduate training in Diabetes, Endocrinology and Clinical Pharmacology in October 2010. She joined the National Severe Insulin Resistance team as a Clinical Research Fellow in January 2011 and became a Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology in January 2012. She is now the Clinical Lead for the National Severe insulin Resistance Service for adult patients.
Charlotte Jenkins-Liu, NSIRS Specialist Nurse
Charlotte Jenkins-Liu first qualified as a nurse in 1995. She started her nursing career working in Urology at Whipps Cross Hospital, East London 1995-1997, followed by 5 years in acute renal medicine at the Middlesex Hospital in London 1997-2002.
In 2002 she began her diabetes specialist nursing at the Homerton Hospital in Hackney, East London, where she stayed until moving from London to Cambridge. In 2010 she joined the diabetes team at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
Charlotte has worked in the Severe Insulin Resistance service since it was first commissioned in 2011. Her current role involves working with people with Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes, including DAFNE and insulin pumps. But her main interest is working with people with rare forms of diabetes including lipodystrophy related diabetes and other monogenic diabetes such as mature onset diabetes in the young (MODY). She is a trained genetic diabetes nurse (GDN) and is involved in supporting other health care professionals with training / education in this area.
Catherine Flanagan, NSIRs Specialist Dietitian
Catherine graduated as a dietitian from The University of Nottingham in 2003. She has worked at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust for the last 16 years and within the SIRS service since 2011. She was previously a member of the Cardiac Rehabilitation team for three years and also worked with the Obesity multi-disciplinary team. Her particular interests are in lifestyle modification for people with diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease. Catherine also works as part of the insulin pump service as a pump educator.
Lisa Gaff, NSIRS Specialist Dietitian
Lisa Gaff completed her Masters to become a Dietitian from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh in 2012. She has worked at Addenbrooke’s Hospital since graduation as a dietitian within the diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular dietetics team. She joined the SIRS team in 2013. Alongside this she also works as a dietitian and insulin pump educator within the diabetes services, and also within the adult metabolic dietetic services.
Professor David Savage, Honorary consultant
David Savage is a Consultant Physician in General and Metabolic Medicine, and a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellow. He has been working with patients with severe insulin resistance and conducting research in this area for the past 20 years. He has a specific interest in lipodystrophy and its associated metabolic problems, and their treatment.
Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly, Honorary consultant
Stephen O’Rahilly is Professor of Clinical Biochemistry and Medicine at the University of Cambridge and an Honorary Consultant Physician at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. Stephen is a graduate of UCD Medical School and, after post-graduate training in general medicine and endocrinology in London, Oxford and Harvard, set up his research lab at the University of Cambridge in 1991. His research has discovered the fundamental mechanisms underlying many inherited metabolic and endocrine disorders. Such discoveries have led to patient benefit through improved diagnosis, targeted therapies and the development of national specialist services. In 2008, he founded the Institute of Metabolic Science at Cambridge which he co-directs. This is now one of the worlds’ leading multi-disciplinary centres for the study of metabolic diseases. His work has been recognised by numerous prestigious awards and in 2013 he was knighted for services to medical research.
Morag Fieldsend, NSIRS Secretary/Administrator
Morag is relatively new to working in the NHS and has been with the Diabetes and Endocrine department since the summer of 2020. She has been in administration for a number of years in a range of areas including pharmaceutical and education and is enjoying being part of the SIRS team.
Dr Rachel Williams, NSIRS Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist
Rachel Williams went to medical school in Edinburgh and then did her early paediatric training at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool. From there she moved to Cambridge where she did her research degree (MD) on the role of the growth hormone IGF-I axis in type 1 diabetes. She completed her clinical training in paediatric endocrinology and diabetes as a Clinical Lecturer in the University of Cambridge Department of Paediatrics and has been a substantive consultant since 2012. She works 50 per cent of the week in Addenbrooke’s, and the other 50 per cent she is based at the University of Nottingham School of Medicine where she has a role in medical education.
Samantha Gorman, NSIRS Specialist paediatric nurse
Sam has been a Children’s Nurse since 2004 and has worked in various wards/departments all at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. In 2010 she joined the Weston Centre team as a Paediatric Endocrine Nurse looking after children and young people with growth, puberty, thyroid and other hormone problems. Sam has been part of the paediatric NSIR service since 2017.
Cliodhna Miles, NSIRS paediatric dietitian
Cliodhna joined the Paediatric diabetes team in Addenbrookes in 2020 and has recently started to specialise in SIRS. She has previous experience in general paediatric dietary management, eating disorders and weight management. She has a particular interest in dietary management of Lipodystrophy and supporting patients and their families with practical advice.