I have held senior management roles in the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector since 2010 and am currently Deputy Chief Executive of a community interest company delivering talking therapies in the South West. In this role I lead on partnership work and patient involvement, and am passionate about ensuring the voice of the end user is represented in all aspects of healthcare - from research, planning and design through to evaluation and sharing learning. In a previous role I recruited and supported a team of older people to become commissioners of voluntary sector services and also community researchers, evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to tackle isolation and loneliness in later life. I became involved with Involve in order to support the vision of world-class public engagement in research, and to share my own experiences of service user involvement.