We celebrate the work of two of City Hospice’s inspirational women on International Women’s day.
We are proud of all of our staff and on International Women’s Day we focus on two truly inspirational women. Dr Margred Capel is our Clinical Lead and Consultant in Palliative Care Medicine and Terri Gazi our Lead Nurse. Dr Capel has overall responsibility for delivering palliative care services throughout Cardiff. Of course she couldn’t do this without our fantastic clinical team at City Hospice, led by Terri Gazi.
Dr Margred Capel, Clinical Director at City Hospice
MB BS BSc MRCP (London) FRCP MSc Diploma in Clinical Leadership Honorary Senior Lecturer Cardiff University
I studied medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London graduating in 1998. Having trained in hospitals and hospices in London and Wales I’m accredited in Palliative Medicine.
Appointed as a Consultant in Palliative Medicine at City Hospice (formerly George Thomas Hospice) and Velindre University Hospital NHS Trust in 2008, I subsequently became Clinical Director of City Hospice
I worked to produce clinical guidelines as a member of the NICE guideline development groups. This was for pancreatic cancer (2016), Cannabis derived products for medicinal use (2019) and Cancers of the Upper Aerodigestive tract (head and neck cancers) 2015. As an Expert Advisor for NICE I worked on the Professional Standards Committee for the Association of Palliative Medicine. We established a service evaluation to capture activity and patients preferences and decision making with respect to end of life care. The results of which have been published in the BMJ Active and supportive care.
As Clinical Director for City Hospice, with the team, I am responsible for providing community palliative care services throughout Cardiff. I’m also the Training Programme Director for Palliative Medicine in Wales.
Dr Capel tells us what she enjoys most about her role
“I enjoy the varying aspects of my role. Most of all though I find it so rewarding to help improve the quality of life of people when they need us most”.
Dr Capel is married with two children and when she’s not at work enjoys supporting her children with their many sporting activities and hobbies.
Terri Gazi Lead Nurse at City Hospice
I have worked for City Hospice for over 12 years.
Prior to my appointment here I worked in a variety of palliative care settings.
However the first half of my career was in ITU where I worked in Cardiff, Manchester and Saudi Arabia.
While ITU was an area that concentrated on active treatment and trying our best to save people palliative care is completely the other side trying our best to make sure all our patients have a good death.
My training in palliative care has involved a degree in oncology and palliative care/ master and teaching qualification.
More recently I have trained in hypnotherapy which has been well received by many patients unfortunately due to time restraints I cannot see as many patients as I would like.
The team I lead are absolutely fantastic.
They are all different personalities and different senses of humour. However, they all share an absolute drive to do their very best for each and every patient under their care. The office is always full of laughter and of course sometimes tears, after all we are all human.
Of course the volunteers must not be forgotten without them we would not survive.
Work is a very busy place and juggling home visits plus city traffic can be challenging. My pet hate at the moment is we are not allowed to use the bus lanes! Imagine how much faster we would get around our patients.
No two working days are the same, I can be visiting patients, attending meetings, running dementia days or teaching nurses in Gibraltar.
At home I live with my partner and cat Clyde. In my spare time I enjoy keeping fit and having the odd night out with friends and family. I recently became a volunteer for the Cinnamon Trust. It’s another wonderful charity that helps people who are no longer able to walk their dogs through illness. I currently walk two lovely dogs which I really enjoy.
My job has taught me to respect life but also plan for when I have to leave it.
International Women’s Day is a great opportunity to celebrate the work of Dr Capel and Terri together with all of our staff of whom we are very proud. To read more about the award winning work of City Hospice click here
