St Giles Hospice is saying a fond farewell to Dr Emma Hodges who joined St Giles in 2009 and has been CEO for the past seven years. 

Emma has decided that now is the right time to leave her role at St Giles and to focus on her work with Compassionate Communities. She has championed the issues of inequality of access to palliative care and the need for different approaches within the community from within the hospice movement for many years. In addition, Emma has led a very successful rebrand, championed the hospice movement nationally and internationally on a range of key strategy areas and navigated a safe path through the significant challenges to sustainability through the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Rob Vickers the Chair of Trustees said: “Emma has been involved with Compassionate Communities UK for a little while and in her capacity as CEO at St Giles supported the achievement of Birmingham becoming the first ever accredited Compassionate City. I had the pleasure of supporting her at the award ceremony for this achievement, with Birmingham City Council at Birmingham Library.  I am not at all surprised that she has decided to dedicate her time to this work.

“As a sustainable charity, St Giles is in one of the strongest positions in the organisation’s history. This is testament to the leadership that Emma and the wider leadership team have provided over the last few years. We wish Emma all the very best for her future career and I am sure she will continue to be a friend of the hospice and part of our community.”

Emma said: “It has been an absolute pleasure being part of St Giles it is such a fab place to not only do the job required, but also in taking part and volunteering in fundraising and lottery events. My children have grown up with the hospice also helping at hook a duck, the Christmas Fayre and I'll never forget how many cuddly toys they bought from our charity shop road trips!  I've worked with so many amazing people and St Giles will always be dear in my heart. 

“A huge thank you to the St Giles community for your ongoing support and also to the volunteers and staff at the hospice for their dedication and hard work in helping us to continue to be there for our patients and their families. I wish St Giles all the very best.” 

St Giles is starting the process of recruiting a new CEO and will share this news at some time in the near future.