Healthcare

Three UK representatives elected to key EHC committee 

Written by Sam Wilson, October 16, 2024

We’re delighted to tell you that three people from the UK have been elected to serve on the European Haemophilia Consortium’s (EHC) influential steering committee.  

Amy Owen-Wyard, our trustee, William McKeown, our Access and Service Improvement Ambassador and Jamie O’Hara, a former trustee and health economist, were all elected to the EHC’s steering committee at its conference in Bulgaria on 4 October.  

There are currently seven members of the committee, who are drawn from the EHC’s member states, as well as President Miguel Crato and Olivia Romero-Lux, CEO, who has no voting rights. A ninth person will be co-opted onto the committee at its next meeting. 

Amy, whose son has Glanzmann Thrombasthenia, said: ‘As the only member of the steering committee with a connection to an extremely rare bleeding disorder, I want to continue to support and advocate for all bleeding disorders at a European level whilst ensuring the extremely rare and Bleeding Disorder of Unknown Cause (BDUC) also have a voice.’ 

The steering committee meets online once a month, and has wide ranging responsibilities. These include representing the EHC, implementing its strategic plan, deciding on the activities to be carried out over the year on behalf of the EHC, drafting the agenda/programme of EHC main events and reporting to the EHC’s General Assembly on what has been done and how funds have been spent. 

The other people elected to the steering committee are: Panagiotis Christoforou (Greece), Tatjana Markovic (Serbia), Augustas Nedzinskas (Lithuania) and Laura Quintas Lorenzo (Spain).  

Although it is great for the UK to have secured three representatives, all steering committee representatives agree that they will act first and foremost in the interests of the EHC not their member nation.  

Congratulations to Amy, William and Jamie!