Meet our team

Guy's Cancer Academy is clinically led, drawing on the expertise of world-leading clinicians at Guy's Cancer Centre, one of the largest comprehensive cancer centres in Europe. Our team combines clinical knowledge with educational expertise to create training and resources that reflect real-world cancer care.

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Our Director

Dr Kiruthikah Thillai is Interim Director at Guy's Cancer Academy and a Consultant Medical Oncologist at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. She plays an active role in postgraduate medical education and the development of innovative learning resources for both healthcare professionals and people affected by cancer.

She holds a PhD from King's College London and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Alongside her clinical work, she has a strong interest in improving cancer care through education, inclusion, and collaboration.

For enquiries regarding educational initiatives or collaborative opportunities, contact gstt.guyscanceracademy@nhs.net.

Julie Bishop has been with the Academy since its inception in 2018. She oversees the Academy's finances, contracts, and human resources, and provides administrative support across all our events and courses.

Julie has over 21 years' experience working in the NHS, 17 of those with Guy's and St Thomas'. She joined the Trust in 2007 and became Business Manager for the Cancer Programme the following year, building deep expertise in cancer service operations over 16 years in the field.

For enquiries regarding operations, contracts, or anything else, contact julie@guyscanceracademy.co.uk.

Yvonne Francis is Faculty Development Lead at Guy’s Cancer Academy.

Yvonne oversees the running of accredited courses, writes learning content, and organises UK-based learning events such as webinars and study days. She supports, develops and delivers education and training to all staff involved in providing care for people with cancer.

She has a DipHe in adult nursing, a BSc in cancer nursing, a PGDip in Advanced Nursing Practice and a PGCert in clinical education. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Yvonne has 25 years’ experience as a nurse, mostly as a clinical nurse specialist in haemo-oncology. As an independent nurse prescriber she routinely educated in, monitored and prescribed systemic anti-cancer therapy.

She has recently co-authored a chapter in the new UKONS textbook: Fundamentals of Cancer Care, as well as the Royal College of Nursing (RCN)-endorsed first national guidance for therapeutic venesections for which she won the 2021 British Journal of Nursing Nurse of the Year Award.

Louisa Fleure is the Lead Course Educator for our prostate cancer care course.

Louisa is a Consultant Nurse and leads the uro-oncology CNS teams at Guy’s Hospital. She specialises in the care of people with advanced prostate cancer, with a particular interest in androgen deprivation therapy.

Louisa has 30 years’ experience in urological nursing, and has an MSc in Advancing Health Care Practice, postgraduate qualifications in healthcare ethics and Law, and is a non-medical prescriber. She is chair of the European Association of Urological Nurses Prostate Special interest group, and has also held trustee and officer positions for the British Association of Urological Nurses.

Michael Flynn is the Lead Course Educator for our acute oncology (AOS) course.

He works on supporting students undertaking the AOS module and updating content for the module.

Michael has been the Acute Oncology Nurse Consultant at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ for 11 years and a cancer nurse for 33 years. He has an MSc in Advanced practice from King’s College London and a PG Cert in Health Services Management from London South Bank University. He is an independent prescriber, and is currently undertaking an MSc in Health Professions Education at UCL.

Dr Catherine Oakley is Joint Course Lead for our systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) course.

Catherine is a Chemotherapy Nurse Consultant at Guy’s Cancer Centre, where she leads non-medical prescribing clinics and is the strategic SACT nursing lead.

She is a clinical academic with a research focus on communicating risk and symptom reporting. She is establishing a new model for group pre-treatment consultations where patients and families learn from each other and the nurse facilitators.

Catherine is a past president of the UK Oncology Nursing Society (UKONS) and past co-chair of the UK SACT Board.

She worked with Cancer Research UK to develop a national cancer patient treatment record and patient film, and is the lead author for the national UKONS SACT nursing Competency Passport.

Lisa McGarry is Joint Course Lead for our systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) course.

Lisa is the Head of Nursing for Oncology at Guy’s and St Thomas’. She is a highly accomplished, well respected senior nursing leader with over 17 years’ experience in NHS cancer nursing.

Her extensive nursing experience spans different cancer services including oncology, haematology and ambulatory systemic anti-cancer therapies (SACT).

Lisa's portfolio reflects a solid clinical, operational and strategic nursing background in SACT nursing. She has contributed to articles on improving and promoting patient care, support seminars, and education modules on SACT, and is a UKONS Champion.

Dr Danny Ruta is Lead Course Tutor for our upcoming accredited course on artificial intelligence in cancer care.

Danny is AI Clinical Lead for Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, including Guy’s Cancer Centre, which is partnering with the King’s Technology Evaluation Centre (KiTEC), King’s College London, on the clinical evaluation of AI technology in cancer care.

Danny currently leads on several AI clinical evaluations in cancer care, including evaluations of AI for clinical decision support, clinical trials matching and histopathology diagnosis.

Danny has formerly held posts as Director of Public Health for the London Borough of Lewisham and the City of Newcastle, and as Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology and Health Services Research at Newcastle University and Dundee University. He is also an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Kings College London.

Llywelyn Cadman-Davies is Lead Pharmacy Educator at Guy's Cancer Academy.

He leads on writing course information and mentoring professionals on systemic anti-cancer therapies and cancer courses, across a wide scope of professional platforms.

Llywelyn has worked across cancer services for 15 years, operating as an expert clinician within haemato-oncology for the past 10 years at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. He has led the pharmacy service in oncology and haematology as part of his ongoing role.

He is an independent prescriber in myeloid neoplasms, and is currently leading on the pharmacy research projects within cancer at the Trust.

Dr Michael Skwarski is Preceptorships Lead at Guy's Cancer Academy, and Clinical Oncology Consultant at Guy’s Cancer Centre.

Michael has been a consultant at Guy’s Cancer Centre for the last four years, and has a specialist interest in treating thoracic malignancies.

He joined Guy’s Cancer Academy in 2023 with the aim of developing educational content focusing on radiation-based treatments.

Michael completed his clinical oncology training in Oxford, where he also completed a PhD which involved developing and running early phase oncology clinical trials. He continues to be involved in research, as well as being a lecturer and educational supervisor for medical students.

Dr Shrawan Pandit is Senior International Education Fellow at Guy’s Cancer Academy. He is also Senior Oncology Clinical Fellow at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. He helps to develop and deliver high-quality digital and blended learning. He develops educational content particularly focusing on oncology for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professions.

Shrawan graduated in medicine from Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences and has General Medical Council (GMC), UK registration with a licence to practise.

Apart from working as a doctor in various hospitals in Kathmandu and NHS in the United Kingdom, he has a keen interest in teaching and learning activities and has years of experience working in medical education departments.

Professor Arnie Purushotham has been a Consultant Academic Surgeon for 26 years having worked in Glasgow, Cambridge and London. He is Professor of Breast Cancer at King’s College London and Consultant Surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust. He is also the Director of King’s Health Partners Comprehensive Cancer Centre.

As a scientific researcher, Professor Purushotham’s goal has been to drive high quality clinical and translational research that directly impacts patients with cancer. Key areas of research are patterns of metastatic spread, novel optical intra-operative imaging, MR Elastography to predict response or resistance to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, window of opportunity trials, prevention and early detection, cancer in low- and middle-income countries and cancer outcomes.

Arnie advises on international education and public health.

Guy's Cancer Academy
The Learning Lab
The Leather Market
Weston Street
London
SE1 3ER

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Meet our team

Our Director

Our Service Manager

Our courses and resources are shaped by experienced clinicians and educators working across cancer care. Explore the team behind our work.

Credit-bearing courses

Yvonne

Louisa

Michael

Catherine

Lisa

Danny

Clinical content / expertise

Llywelyn

Michael

Shrawan

Advisors

Arnie

Our partnership with The Learning Lab