Leadership team

Paul Farthing

Chief Executive

Paul joined Shooting Star Children’s Hospices in September 2021 as Chief Executive, bringing 25 years of extensive leadership experience in both the charity and commercial sectors.

Most recently Paul was Director of Income Generation and Communications at The Children’s Trust. Previously he was Managing Director at a charity-specialist marketing communications agency, became High Value Relationships Director at Cancer Research UK and then Director of Fundraising at both Age UK and NSPCC.

Dr Anna-Karenia Anderson

Medical Director

Dr Anna-Karenia (AK) Anderson has worked at Shooting Star Children’s Hospice for over 15 years in a joint appointment with the Royal Marsden Hospital as a Consultant in Paediatric Palliative Medicine. In this role she established a specialist paediatric palliative care 24/7 out of hours service and spearheaded the development of a now fully NHS commissioned specialist paediatric palliative care service for Surrey and Southwest London. She is research active, publishing in the areas of phase of illness, surprise question and Fentanyl with ongoing projects on symptom assessment tools and families experience on PICU. She is co-author of two Cochrane reviews on paediatric pain, APPM formulary and PPC guidelines. AK is the local lead for the COPPaR network, a national paediatric palliative care research network.

None of this would have been possible without the early establishment of a Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) users’ group and the active collaboration, passion, and engagement of multi (and inter) disciplinary colleagues across care settings. AK is also the co-chair of the Surrey and Southwest London PPC network (SPAN network).

At the regional level, AK was appointed Palliative and End-of-Life care Children and Young person medical co-lead for the South East Region (PEoLC CYP SE region) in January 2022.

Nationally, AK is the paediatric representative on the NHS England All Ages Palliative and end of life care Clinical excellence workstream and medical representative on the NHS England children and young people palliative and end of life Governance group. She is the current chair of the APPM (Association of Paediatric Palliative Medicine). So far in her tenure she has widened the representation of multi-disciplinary colleagues, established several subcommittees (neonatal, trainees and specialist nursing) and created a national paediatric palliative care clinical guidelines group with Cochrane Response support.  She is also an inaugural member of the NIHR pain and palliative group.

Jenny Johnson

Director of Finance & Resources

Jenny joined Shooting Star Children’s Hospices in March 2017 as Head of Finance, becoming Director of Finance & Resources in October 2019. Having qualified as a Chartered Accountant over 25 years ago, she brings almost 20 years’ of experience in senior roles within financial services organisations.

Prior to joining Shooting Star Children’s Hospices, Jenny had taken a year’s sabbatical after working as Chief Accounting Officer for eight years at Premium Credit Ltd, the number one premium finance company in the UK, providing finance to customers to pay for insurance premiums, school fees, membership fees, season tickets and more. She previously worked for Motability Operations as Head of Finance Services. As operators of the Motability Scheme, their aim is to provide a wide range of cars, Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles, scooters and powered wheelchairs that meet its customers’ disability needs.

Best thing about Shooting Star Children’s Hospices:

“I find my job incredibly rewarding – seeing first hand what a difference our care services make to supported families. My previous roles were challenging and rewarding for very different reasons, but at Shooting Star Children’s Hospices I see a much more genuine sense of appreciation for what I do and this makes me want to go the extra mile.”

Jo Cohen

Director of Strategy and Parternships 

Jo was appointed to this new role in April 2021.  Her role is to ensure operational excellence and effectiveness; increase statutory funding; leveraging our existing assets to increase income and embed excellent external relationships with the statutory and hospice sector.  For the previous year, during the pandemic, she had been working as Interim Director of Care-Business.

She has been working at Shooting Star Children’s Hospices since 2011 as Statutory Partnerships Manager and Head of Care – Business Management since 2015.

Jo has worked in the charity sector for 30 years for a range of national and regional disability charities as Regional Operations, Business and Development Manager. She completed her MBA in 2003.

Jo is passionate about charities being run as well as, if not better than, any other business to ensure that the children and families that we work with receive the maximum benefit from the money that’s raised. She considers it a great privilege to be able to work every day in the incredibly special hospice environment.

Best thing about Shooting Star Children’s Hospices:

“Knowing that everyone who works here is passionate about providing the best possible service to the children and families.”

Karen Sugarman MBE

Executive Vice-President

Following a career in music, Karen joined Cancer Research UK as a volunteer before spending 15 years working with children and young people living with cancer and leukaemia. Having been aware of the vital importance of the hospice movement due to personal circumstances, it was in 2002 that Karen fulfilled her ambition to work in children’s palliative care when she joined The Shooting Star Trust.

In her current role as Executive Vice-President of Shooting Star Children’s Hospices, Karen helps to drive and develop specialist fundraising streams, creating high-profile events and key donor programmes to build longevity and sustainability. Karen works closely with her co Vice-Presidents, who include Tony Hadley and Simon Cowell, and the charities army of high profile Patrons an celebrity supporters.

Karen has been responsible for securing and speaking at private events, including Buckingham Palace and Downing Street, as well as leading on projects such as the X Factor charity singe and working with Patron Dame Joan Collins who has donated much of her vast wardrobe to many of the charity’s shops.

Most recently, Karen secured £250,000 funding from the ICAP Charity Day to refurbish our Guildford hospice, Christopher’s, and was  responsible for working with NEXT to see the charity benefit from the retailers 5p carrier bag levy, raising £300,000 over three years.

Karen has recently become a weekend volunteer at one of our charity shops and looks forward to a weekly visit from some very special four-legged friends: “They know I have a jar of doggy biscuits under the counter. I now know all the dogs by their names; Gilbert the puppy loves our shop!”

In October 2020, Karen was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for her hard work and dedication to charity, supporting children with life-limiting conditions, and their families for over 35 years.

Best thing about Shooting Star Children’s Hospices:

“Working with an incredible team across the charity and helping to create some very special memories for the children and families we support.”

Nadia Zerroud

Director of People and Culture

Nadia joined Shooting Star Children’s Hospices in January 2022 as Director of People and Culture, responsible for managing the delivery of the People function, including the People strategy, organisational development, resourcing, retention, and transformation.

Prior to joining us she was Director of Workforce Development at AT Medics Ltd for over five years. A Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Nadia’s 20-year HR career started in the public sector in a large and complex acute London teaching hospital. Nadia has worked in senior leadership and non-executive roles in both public and private sector healthcare.

Passionate about people and volunteering she hopes to help create a holistic people offering which enables the workforce to provide the very best possible care for our children and families.

Sally Wells

Director of Fundraising 

Sally brings a wealth of organisational knowledge and fundraising experience having joined The Shooting Star Trust in 2000. Focusing initially in the trusts and corporate field, Sally was instrumental in helping to achieve the £6.5 million capital appeal to build Shooting Star House. Following this, Sally spent ten years’ specialising in major donor and high profile event fundraising, with a focus on planning and executing the team’s annual strategy.

In her current role, Sally leads the entire fundraising team – Community, Corporate, Specialist, Challenge Events and Supporter Development – overseeing day-to-day operations as well as developing and implementing the fundraising strategy to maximise income generation and help ensure Shooting Star Children’s Hospices remains a leading children’s hospice charity.

Best thing about Shooting Star Children’s Hospices:

“Fundraising, particularly in the current climate, can be challenging, but knowing that every day we’re making a difference to families who desperately need our care and support is hugely inspiring. That, and the fact we have such a dedicated team, makes my job incredibly rewarding.”