BPSS Sub-Committee
Dr Hazel Evans
Dr Hazel Evans is a consultant respiratory paediatrician at Southampton Children’s Hospital. She leads the regional respiratory sleep and ventilation services. She has co-chaired the British Thoracic Society guidelines on sleep diagnostics in children. She has a strong interest in teaching and training and is working with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to further develop sleep training within the UK. Her current research interests predominantly relate to infant sleep in particular aiming to report reference ranges for common oximetry parameters.
Vicki Beevers
Vicki is the Founder and CEO of The Sleep Charity and passionate about supporting people to get a better night’s sleep. Having experienced chronic sleep deprivation herself, and the lack of support available, she decided to do something about it and in 2012 established the charity.
Vicki has been involved in a number of research studies around sleep collaborating with leading academic institutions such as the University of York, the University of Leeds and University College of London. She also provides lectures to post graduate medical students and education students at numerous institutions including the Anna Freud Centre for Children and Families, Brighton University and Sheffield Hallam University.
Sleep is a subject that she never tires of speaking about and in 2019 she became a TEDx speaker urging the nation to wake up to the importance of sleep. Vicki regularly features in the national media and has led the charity to deliver two manifestos in Westminster to campaign for increased support for those with sleep issues. Vicki is a CBTi certified clinician and has recently been accepted as a ‘Pilotlighter’ where she offers strategic business support to other charities through Pilotlight.
Dr Desaline Joseph
Dr Desaline Joseph is a Consultant in Paediatric Sleep Medicine at Evelina Children’s Hospital, St Thomas’. She has a Doctorate (MD) and has conducted research in circadian rhythm development in newborn infants. Her research has included home based physiological measurements in infants including estimation of melatonin, cortisol and clock genes. She held an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer post at the University of Nottingham. She supports and supervises physiologists on the STP (Scientist Training programme) programme for Health Care Scientists and contributed to the curriculum review for neurophysiology trainees. She is currently an honorary Senior Lecturer at King’s College London.
Dr Joseph is a past recipient of the Early Stage Researcher Award by the British Sleep Society. She comes from a paediatric neurodisability background and is passionate about teaching, training and developing the field of paediatric sleep medicine within the UK.
Heather Elphick
Heather is consultant in paediatric respiratory and sleep medicine at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, having trained at Alder Hey and Melbourne Children’s Hospitals. She leads the sleep service in Sheffield, managing a comprehensive range of sleep disorders and the 5-bedroomed Sheffield Sleep House. Heather holds an Honorary Chair with the University of Sheffield, in recognition of her collaborative work in the field of technological solutions for children with long-term conditions and is the NIHR Children and Young People’s Medtech sleep and respiratory theme lead. Heather has led a number of NIHR and MRC-funded research and innovation projects, including the “Wake Up to Sleep” project promoting awareness of the impacts of sleep deprivation. Heather is passionate about improving sleep for children and their families. She has spoken at The Sleep Charity’s manifesto launch at the Houses of Parliament and chairs The Sleep Council Advisory Board.
Dr Michael Farquhar
After completing his undergraduate training at the University of Edinburgh, Dr Michael Farquhar trained in general paediatrics, respiratory medicine and sleep medicine at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children (Glasgow), Nottingham Children's Hospital, The Children's Hospital at Westmead (Sydney), Sydney Children's Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital (London).
Mike joined the Evelina London sleep medicine team as a consultant in 2012. He holds weekly general sleep, hypersomnia and adolescent sleep clinics, and supports Evelina London’s busy diagnostic sleep study service. He also works with colleagues across Evelina London to support sleep in children and young people with complex medical difficulties.
In 2018, Mike and colleagues from the Department of Children’s Sleep Medicine worked with the PSHE Association to develop lesson plans to introduce teaching about sleep into the Personal, Health, Social and Economic curriculum in schools across England, emphasising the importance of helping all children, young people – and their families – to prioritise sleep in their lives.
Mike is involved in educating healthcare professionals on the importance of sleep and the impact of fatigue on healthcare, with a focus on sleep for staff working night shifts. His work led to the introduction of the “HALT: Take A Break” campaign for GSTT staff in 2017, and he has worked with organisations including the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, the Royal College of Anaesthetists, the Royal College of Nursing and the British Medical Association in this area. In 2018 he was awarded the Association Award by AAGBI for his contribution to the #FightFatigue campaign.
Mike has a strong interest in raising awareness of issues and challenges faced by young people who identify as LGBT+, particularly when accessing NHS healthcare. In 2018, he helped develop and pilot the Rainbow NHS Badge scheme at Evelina London, which has now been adopted across Guy's and St Thomas' and beyond.
In 2018, Mike was awarded the Individual Guy's and St Thomas' Trust Award in the "Respecting Others" category, in recognition of his work.
Dr Farquhar has a limited capacity to accept invitations to talk at hospitals/conferences, on topics including paediatric sleep medicine, the impact of fatigue in the context of providing healthcare, and challenges faced by LGBT+ young people. Invitations should be sent to Dr Farquhar’s secretary in the first instance.
Dr Farquhar is a member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the British Paediatric Sleep Association, the British Sleep Society, the European Sleep Research Society and the British Paediatric Respiratory Society
Mike can be found on Twitter @DrMikeFarquhar, where he regularly tweets about sleep-related issues affecting children and young people, as well as the importance of acknowledging the impact of workplace fatigue, and more general sleep issues.
Away from work, Mike enjoys spending time in London’s theatres … and can still often be found reading X-Men comics.
Kirandeep Van Den Eshof
Sakina Dastagir
Dr Ness Hewertson
I am a paediatric registrar currently training in the UK to become a consultant in paediatric sleep medicine. I have worked with Southampton Children’s Sleep Disorder Service since 2017 and I am completing a post graduate sleep medicine diploma at Oxford University. I am part of a BPSS sub-committee working on the development of formal training and accreditation in paediatric sleep medicine in the UK. Despite the current absence of formal training, there are a number of valuable training opportunities across the UK. If you would like to know more about training opportunities in paediatric sleep medicine, please do get in touch with me via admin@sleepsociety.org.uk
Dr Omendra Narayan
Dr Omi (Omendra) Narayan is a Consultant Respiratory Paediatrician at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital in Manchester. He is also an Associate Hospital Dean and Honorary Senior Lecturer at Manchester Medical School, University of Manchester. Dr Narayan works in one of the UK’s premier paediatric respiratory units, situated within one of the largest UK postgraduate specialist research centres in Manchester. He leads the bronchoscopy, sleep and non-invasive ventilation and oxygen services at the children’s hospital. He qualified in 2002 and did his Paediatric specialist rotation in London. He did his sub speciality training in Paediatric Respiratory medicine at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, before joining Manchester Children’s as a Consultant.
He is actively engaged in research and training and has widely published journals in peer reviewed journals. He has presented in many national and international conferences. He is the RCPCH College tutor for his NHS Trust and the Quality Advisor on RCPCH CSAC that delivers the national training in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine in UK. His research interests are sleep in adolescents and children with obesity and Neuro Muscular disorders.
He is married and has two young children who keep him busy. In his free time he likes running and does landscape photography.