Meet Trekstock's Trustees

Rachel Roxburgh was appointed as Vice Chair of the Board in October 2023 and took on the role of Chair of the Board in April 2024.

With over twenty years experience in the non-profit sector, she began her career at Cancer Research UK, heading up Race for Life in its infancy, to become a £60m brand. She has held various charitable CEO roles for youth-focused charities, including being the inaugural CEO for Dallaglio RugbyWorks. As a strategic consultant, she uses her breadth of expertise to advise charities and businesses.

"I am truly honoured by the Board's confidence in entrusting me to lead Trekstock as Chair. The rising incidence of cancer among young adults underscores the critical importance of our mission. I lost a dear friend at 23 to a cancer he could have survived if he had access to a support system like Trekstock. His story is a poignant reminder of the gaps we strive to fill. I am dedicated to guiding our efforts to meet this increasing challenge head-on, ensuring we make a lasting, positive impact on those we support and extending our reach to those in need of our services"

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Rob Challis was appointed as Trekstock’s new Chair in February 2020 and he sailed the ship through all weathers. He's now taken a well deserved step back, but is staying with us on the board. Rob’s career has spanned over 50 years initially in the financial services sector where he was a senior director and latterly chief executive in several large, global financial institutions.

He is Chief of staff for philanthropist Sir Harvey McGrath and Director of Tangent Synergy. Rob has spent the last ten years expanding his knowledge of the Not-for-Profit sector, particularly in its relationship with business, working with the boards of charities in a variety of sectors as well as mentoring senior management.

"It's been an honour and a privilege to serve as the Chair of Trekstock's board for a number of years. I'm so proud of the progress we've made in supporting young people affected by cancer during my tenure. Though I'm stepping down from the Chair position, I'm thrilled to continue serving as a trustee and witnessing the positive impact Trekstock will undoubtedly have under Rachel's leadership."

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Tony Dallas is the Founder & CEO of Success Club, a charity seeking to help maximise opportunities and improve life outcomes for young people aged 5-18. Tony has worked in and around London with school communities and families for over 40 years.

Starting out as a volunteer youth worker at the age of 16, he has gone on to work as a peripatetic youth worker, sports development coach, inclusion manager for Crime Concerns Mentoring Plus, a facilitator and storyteller for the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, and youth advisor for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (John Prescott).

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Dr Ankita Batla is a Consultant in Medical Strategy and Patient Engagement as well as a Guest Lecturer at UCL Global Business School for Health. Ankita trained and worked as a medical doctor in India. After her transition to health communications, she has worked across a wide variety of therapy areas for the past 20 years.

With an MBA and a degree in training and development she has been instrumental in designing and running several medical education programs and public health awareness campaigns.

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Eva Reynolds has a 25-year career spanning business-building and corporate leadership, including an 18-year career in healthcare communications, leading award-winning UK global PR and medical communications strategies for a number of memorable pharmaceutical brands.

Eva grew and successfully sold a multi-million revenue global communications business to the FTSE 100 listed CHIME Communications within a 6-year window before becoming an equity partner in global health Communications giant OPEN Health. Eva’s therapeutic area knowledge is broad, and her standout areas of expertise are in oncology and rare disease.

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Dr Louise Soanes is Chief Nurse at Teenage Cancer Trust, a Registered General Nurse and a Registered Sick Children's Nurse. Throughout her career, Louise has worked in a variety of clinical, academic and managerial roles.

She has extensive experience in teenage and young adult cancer care and a detailed understanding of the opportunities and challenges that charities face when delivering services in partnership with the NHS. Louise also works as a Senior Lecturer in Cancer Nursing at London South Bank University.

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Simon Lowe has 36 years of experience in business management in various sectors including hospitality, finance and property. He has been Chairman and Managing Director of several hotels and restaurants and has won several awards for his work. Simon was Trekstock's previous Chair (until 2011) and remains on board as a Trustee and currently acts as the CEO of Eden Lands (Nevis) Ltd and President of the KSL Foundation.

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Chris DeMarco has worked at Legal & General since 2013 in various leadership roles in Legal & General Investment Management, and from 2017-2022, as head of Legal & General’s UK Pension Risk Transfer business.  Chris is now Managing Director of Strategic Accounts and new Markets.

Prior to Legal & General, Chris worked in investment consulting and spent twenty-three years in investment banking covering clients and running sales teams in Europe and North America. Outside of work, Chris is a father to teenage daughters and an exercise enthusiast.  Chris has a BSc in economics from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and over 35 years of industry experience.

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Alison Hill's areas of interest include the role of the clinical nurse specialist, patient experience, and hospital palliative care. She is also a member of the Royal Marsden School Board as she has a keen interest in education and training.

Alison has many years of experience in cancer and palliative care nursing both in London and elsewhere, including acute hospitals, primary care and hospice. More recently, she moved into strategy and is currently the Director of Cancer Nursing at Barts Health NHS Trust, a group of four hospitals in East London.

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Julie Jeancolas is a senior leader with extensive experience in Digital, Advertising and Data. Currently she is the Managing Director, heading the Media Product & Partnerships team at Dunnhumby, a leading customer data science company. Prior to this, Julie worked as a Director at Google and was responsible for scaling their Platforms and Ads business via a network of Consultancies and Media Agencies.

With a strong background in digital and commercial partnerships, before this she held leadership and board positions in large agency groups including WPP, Publicis and Dentsu Aegis.

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Dr Gemma Pugh is a behavioural scientist with a specialist interest in survivorship among young people with cancer. She is the Head of Patient Reported Outcomes Research at Anthony Nolan, with a PhD from University College London and has worked with Trekstock for many years, supporting us on the monitoring and evaluation of our programmes.

Much of her research has centred on physical activity and quality of life outcomes after treatment.

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