22/07/2026
Catherine Wood has been involved with Attend for over 20 years, supporting and helping to shape many of projects and services. In 2017, after a long career in nursing and hospice leadership, she became Attend’s Clinical and Quality Lead, bringing decades of experience in healthcare, service design, and end-of-life care.
For 21 years, Catherine managed adult and children's hospices after working as a senior ward sister in the NHS. Her passion for supporting those in their vulnerable stages of life has remained at the heart of everything she does. “Hospice care and end-of-life care is so vital,” said Catherine. “It’s so important that we get it right and we only have one chance to get it right for people.”
Furthermore, Catherine emphasizes how valuable end-of-life care is not just for clients, but for volunteers as well. She says, “This type of care is just really a privilege. It’s just a privilege to be able to sit with people.”
As the Clinical and Quality Lead of Attend, Catherine works the Integrated Brain Injury Service which includes befriending projects, stroke support, and care home initiatives. She oversees quality audits, policies, volunteer training, and organisational development, ensuring that services continue to meet the needs of both clients and volunteers.
Throughout her time at Attend, Catherine has not only developed projects but maintained impactful services as well. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she set up Attend’s befriending service, noticing the growing isolation many people faced during lockdown and working to prevent it. While other organisations were closing similar services, Attend adapted and expanded its support. Attend’s befriending services quickly became so successful that volunteers struggled to keep up with demand.
Catherine has also been instrumental in developing Attend’s work within care homes. She chairs Friends of Oaklands and runs a Dementia Café, creating opportunities for residents, families, and community members living with dementia to connect with each other. Even with COVID-19 preventing social gatherings, the café continued online, with participants meeting virtually from their homes, enjoying tea and scones that Catherine had delivered.
Alongside her work at Attend, Catherine is a lecturer at the University of Hull and recently completed her doctorate, receiving a PhD in philosophy of health studies with a focus on end of life and dementia. Combining two areas she feels deeply passionate about, Catherine states, “It is just such an honour to work with people at that stage of their life.” She continues, “To be able to sit with somebody as they die is really powerful. And to comfort their relatives, it’s something really special; it’s a really special area of work.”
One of Catherine’s favourite memories from her work comes from the Dementia Café. During a Christmas party that Catherine had put on, a gentleman living with dementia stood up and invited his daughter-in-law to dance with him. “He held out his hand to his daughter-in-law and they danced to the Christmas music,” said Catherine, “They were in a proper sort of dance hold, and she had tears pouring down her face.” For Catherine, this moment was “a powerful image of connection” that’s not usually made during normal visits. Even if words and memories begin to fade, Catherine’s work through Attend’s services can create connections that last forever.
Whether supporting people living with brain injury, loneliness, stroke or dementia, “the work that we do brings them that connection and help and hope,” said Catherine.
Catherine concludes, “We can introduce hope into their lives. I think it’s really quite powerful, the work of Attend.”
