Linda McEnhill – Hospice Chief Executive Officer

Linda McEnhill became St Nicholas Hospice Care’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in December 2021.

Throughout her 30-year career in palliative care, Linda has held roles at Hospice UK, Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie Cancer Care, The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow, St Christopher’s Hospice in London and St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney.

Linda joined St Nic’s in 2021 from Ardgowan Hospice in Greenock, Scotland, where she was also their CEO.

However, this move was not Linda’s first experience of working for St Nic’s. In 2000, while working as a Macmillan Social Worker in Charing Cross Hospital and living in Cambridge, Linda was approached by our then Head of Family Support, who was retiring. Linda was asked if she would be interested in the role.

Linda was appointed to the role in 2001, which saw her move from being a practitioner to a senior manager. Linda stayed in post until 2005, with the experiences and opportunities to influence care and shape services, preparing her for more senior roles.

When she was first at St Nic’s, Linda was awarded the first-ever Hambro-Macmillan Fellowship. This award was given in recognition of the work she had undertaken to try to improve end-of-life care for people with learning disabilities. As part of this, Linda was given a grant which she used to explore breaking bad news models for people with learning disabilities.

Having supported Hospice UK as Widening Access Manager, Linda’s desire for all people to have access to high-quality end-of-life care led her in 1998 to establish the voluntary organisation National Network for Palliative Care of People with Learning Disabilities. It is now a charity, the Palliative Care Network for People with Learning Disabilities (pcpld.org). When she stood down as founding chair in 2008, it created the Linda McEnhill Award, which recognises individuals and organisations that have made a difference to the end-of-life and bereavement care of people with a learning disability. Linda was honoured to personally receive the Linda McEnhill Award in 2008.

Also a qualified Clinical Hypnotherapist, Linda is also currently the Chair of Trustees for Inverclyde Community Volunteer Services and a Trustee for the national charity Hope for Home, which seeks to enable people with dementia to be able to die in their own homes.

Married to her husband of 41 years, Peter, Linda has two children, a daughter Jennifer and a son Peter and is also the proud owner of a beautiful Dalmatian Mungo (her instant source of stress relief). She enjoys socialising and meeting with friends in whichever country she’s living and working in at the time.