Our Team

Tom is an Ear Nose and Throat Surgery Registrar in the North West with an interest in Paediatrics and the Healthy Lifespan.

He graduated in Medicine in London from Imperial College and then trained as a junior doctor whilst living in Swindon, Bath, Bristol and Brighton.

He studied for the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) in 2013.  Following this Tom contributed to Global Health research and teaching through health system strengthening projects in Mozambique, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Sierra Leone and humanitarian de-mining with the HALO Trust in Columbia, Cambodia, Malawi and Afghanistan.

He has just completed a Wellcome funded PhD in Global Health based at the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme in Blantyre, focusing on developing a health systems intervention using frugal assistive technology for school age children's hearing loss with regional experts.

Tom's research interests include any interdisciplinary work allied to ENT including hearing, speech, communication, education, human factors and noise. He welcomes contact from any collaborators seeking to explore health impacts through the lifecourse, inequity in treatment outcomes and research into socioeconomic deprivation.

Dr Nnajiuba completed his MBBS at Imperial College London in 2014. He then finished Radiology training in Liverpool in 2021 subspecialising in Head & Neck, before going on to complete a post CCT Fellowship in Head & Neck Radiology at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital, London. He was appointed as a Consultant Radiologist with specialist interests in Head & Neck and Chest Radiology at Liverpool University Hospital NHS Trust in September 2020. 

Away from his clinical work Dr Nnajiuba is co-founder of RadCast, an educational initiative aimed at promoting radiology through a monthly podcast, courses and academic competitions. 

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Ellie Light holds a Masters qualification in Physician Associate Studies, and is a qualified Therapeutic Radiographer in the UK. Ellie has gained diverse clinical experience across primary and secondary care, including great experience and knowledge in oncology. She currently works as a Research Assistant on the IRIS study, a national project exploring immersive radiotherapy experiences for head and neck cancer patients. This role reflects her passion for combining clinical care and innovation and research to improve patient outcomes.

Ellie is particularly interested in cancer services, radiotherapy advances, and the integration of emerging technologies into patient-centred care. She is dedicated to advancing oncology through both clinical practice and research, with a focus on improving outcomes and experience for cancer patients.

Understanding emotional challenges after treatment for head and neck cancer.

A head and neck cancer diagnosis can have a threat to life and treatments can be invasive and life changing. Treatment regimens can impair physical and psychological well-being caused by facial disfigurement and / or disability, such as difficulties speaking, breathing, or swallowing. Therefore, difficulties with emotional distress such as depression, anxiety and cancer-related post-traumatic stress symptoms can occur.  Studies have suggested that people with HNC have increased risk of emotional distress and suicidal tendencies in comparison with other tumour types as well as being four times higher than the general population.

Research exploring psychological mechanisms that underpin the development of emotional difficulties and keep them going is limited within HNC. This cross-sectional study will investigate the role of metacognitive beliefs and self-compassion in the development and maintenance of anxiety, depression, and cancer-related post-traumatic stress. The study will collect questionnaire measures at one time point and will use quantitative methods to analyse the data. Participants will be able to complete the measures using an online link or using paper and pen.

The study is being conducted as partial completion of the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Liverpool and has been designed in conjunction with the Aintree Patient and Participation Involvement group at the HNC unit at Aintree Hospital. The findings will be published in a peer reviewed journal and will help us understand psychological interventions for people with HNC and how we can help minimise distress following treatments

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HEE/NIHR Advanced Clinical & Practitioner Academic Fellow

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