Meet the team

At Fight Bladder Cancer we are committed to doing all we can to support bladder cancer patients and their loved ones.

Melanie Costin

Interim CEO / Director of Patient Engagement and Support
Melanie brings a deep personal connection to our mission, having discovered the charity early in her own bladder cancer journey. Her role encompasses strategic leadership and oversight of the charity, ensuring it delivers vital information, support, and advocacy to those affected by bladder cancer. She works to raise public awareness, champion policy changes to improve care pathways, and advocate for increased investment in bladder cancer research. This includes speaking at support groups, overseeing the Bladder Buddy service, managing the online forum, and ensuring the charity’s work influences healthcare decision-makers. By participating in medical meetings, Melanie amplifies the patients’ voice and ensures their perspectives drive advancements in awareness, support, policy, and research.

Away from work, Melanie runs an art class for dementia patients. She also loves cats, music, travel, and cemetery photography.

Amy Jacob

Fundraising Manager
After years of volunteering with various charities, Amy joined Fight Bladder Cancer to help with our fundraising efforts. Her responsibilities involve working very closely with our fundraisers, offering them support and guidance.

Outside of work, Amy has a degree in Anthropology and is a keen traveller. She enjoys true crime podcasts and watching the latest Netflix documentary.

Kirsten Meek

Fundraising Executive
Kirsten holds a BA (Hons) in English and Philosophy from Durham University and has a range of experience working for charities. Her main responsibility involves supporting our wonderful fundraisers who are the backbone of Fight Bladder Cancer.

Outside of work, Kirsten is an avid reader and loves to travel.

Sue Williams

Office Manager (part-time)
With over 30 years experience in bookkeeping, Sue joined Fight Bladder Cancer in 2016. Sue answers telephones, deals with orders, replies to enquiries, covers the admin tasks, and pulls together the financial paperwork. Together with colleagues, she occasionally loads her car with all things Fight Bladder Cancer and drives to a urology conference or health awareness day to set up our stand. Her late son-in-law was diagnosed with bladder cancer.

Away from the office, she enjoys needlecrafts, drawing, beadwork, crosswords, Sudoku and reading. She loves hunting for vintage fabrics and beads at car boot sales and markets.

Vicky Fernandes

Charity Administrator

Vicky plays a crucial role in ensuring our charity office runs smoothly and efficiently. She brings a wealth of experience in administration, particularly within digital marketing and communications teams across various industries. She handles enquiries by telephone, email, and post, always offering a friendly and professional response. Vicky maintains our filing systems and provides administrative assistance to the charity team. This includes word processing, managing electronic communications, and keeping records up to date. She also arranges travel, sets up meetings, and coordinates events. She holds a BA (Hons) in English from the University of Southampton.

Away from work, Vicky enjoys weight training and reading crime novels.

Michael Sloane

Bookkeeping Assistant (part-time) and bladder cancer patient
For over 29 years, Michael worked as an accountant for a fire and security alarm company. He assists with the accounting system, data entry and reporting. Michael was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2013, and whilst he has had a couple of recurrences since, he has now been clear for the past three years.

Michael likes to cycle, and has cycled from west London to Brighton a couple times. He has also enjoyed scuba diving in Australia and Malta.

Pamela McGowan

Communications Volunteer

With over 12 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, she is a versatile professional, specialising in oncology. Trained in biomedical sciences, she transitioned to the field of medical communications, combining her strong clinical background and passion for writing. She has authored a non-fiction book on autism, runs a blog focussed on special educational needs and health issues, and also volunteers as an awareness ambassador for the cleft lip and palate charity CLAPA.

Pamela enjoys keeping fit, climbing mountains, long walks and singing in her spare time.