John Varley named as new Marie Curie Chairman
Press release published
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John Varley, the former Group Chief Executive of Barclays, has been appointed Chairman of Marie Curie. He succeeds Sir Peter Davis who retires at the end of March. Mr Varley, who remains a Senior Advisor to the Board of Barclays Plc is also Chairman of Business Action on Homelessness and President of the Employers’ Forum on Disability, said he was delighted to be joining the charity, which cares for half of all cancer patients who die at home. John Varley said: “Marie Curie provides a remarkable free home nursing service to people with cancer and other terminal illnesses, along with expert care at its nine hospices. “There is still a tremendous amount of work to be done in ensuring everyone gets the right care and support they need towards the end of life in the place of their choice – and I look forward to supporting the team at Marie Curie in the great work they do.” -ENDS- |
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Marie Curie is one of the UK’s largest charities. Employing more than 2,700 nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals, it provided care to more than 31,000 terminally ill patients in the community and in its nine hospices last year and is the largest provider of hospice beds outside the NHS.
Funding
Around 70 per cent of the charity’s income comes from the generous support of thousands of individuals, membership organisations and businesses, with the balance of our funds coming from the NHS.
Marie Curie Nurses
The charity is best known for its network of Marie Curie Nurses working in the community to provide end-of-life care, totally free for patients in their own homes.
Research
The charity has two centres for palliative care research, The Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Unit at University College London and The Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute in Liverpool.
It also funds seven fundamental scientific research groups which investigate the causes and treatments of cancer. This research was previously carried out at the Marie Curie Research Institute in Oxted, Surrey. The programmes are now located in universities around the country, and will receive funding from the charity until 2012.
Supporting the choice to die at home
Research shows around 65 per cent of people would like to die at home if they had a terminal illness, with a sizeable minority opting for hospice care. However, more than 50 per cent of cancer deaths still occur in hospital, the place people say they would least like to be. Since 2004 Marie Curie has been campaigning for more patients to be able to make the choice to be cared for and die at home.
About John Varley
John was Barclays Group Chief Executive from 1 September 2004 until 31 December 2010 and remains a Senior Advisor to the Board of Barclays Plc. Prior to this he had been Group Deputy Chief Executive from 1 January 2004.
He held the position of Group Finance Director from 2000 until the end of 2003. John joined the Executive Committee in September 1996 and was appointed to the Board in June 1998.
He was Chief Executive of Retail Financial Services from 1998 to 2000 and Chairman of the Asset Management Division from 1995 to 1998.
John is a non-executive director of AstraZeneca PLC. He is also Chairman of Business Action on Homelessness, President of the Employer’s Forum on Disability and President of the UK Drug Policy Commission.
John is married and a father to two children.
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