Our Team

Susan Muirhead joined us in March 2019 as the Community Support Manager at the PKD Charity. Susan coordinates a programme of personalised, non-medical support services for individuals and families affected by PKD. These include online PKD Forums, nationwide telephone peer support; topic-based conference calls, webinars and meetups.

Susan has experience of PKD, having seen personally the effects of it as a PKD wife, mother and kidney donor.

Over seven years ago Susan discovered the closed UK PKD support Facebook group which she started to promote and make more active. It has since grown significantly, and each day we welcome new members. 

Jane, who brings over 30 years of senior management experience with some of the world's leading brands, joined us as Communications and Events Manager in 2019.

Along with her sister, she inherited PKD from her dad - who sadly passed away when she was only 17 - and has since run the gamut of all things PKD, including brain aneurysm surgery twice and a kidney transplant. She previously wrote about her experiences of living with PKD in a weekly column in The Times.

Jane combines a strong commercial background with her lived experience of PKD to improve awareness and education of the disease, through marketing campaigns, advocacy and educational events, on and offline. 

She considers her greatest assets to be resilience, a sense of humour, her son and an ancient cat called Jimmy! 

Audrey joined the PKD Charity in January 2024 as the Patient Involvement and Engagement Officer. In this role, she ensures that research is patient-centered, engaging with the public and researchers to foster two-way interaction and provide a meaningful voice to key groups.

Diagnosed with ADPKD in 1986, Audrey has been on Tolvaptan since 2017 and was recently diagnosed with PLD.

With a background in geophysics, Audrey transitioned to Data and Information Management in recent years. Her career has taken her to various international locations, including Alaska and Canada. Now, she enjoys a settled village life, with plenty of space for walking her wirehaired dachshunds.

Rachel joined the PKD team in April 2024 as Fundraising Manager. With nearly 10 years of experience working in the charity sector, both locally and nationally, Rachel is here to support everyone who wants to raise money for the PKD Charity.

“One of my favourite things about being a fundraiser is speaking to the incredible people who go to such great lengths to raise money for something they believe in. From running a marathon with a challenging condition to doing skydives despite being scared of heights, it never ceases to amaze me how incredible people are. Being able to go on the journey with them is a great privilege.”

If you have an idea on how you would like to support our charity and help those affected by PKD, Rachel would love to hear from you.