Lindsey Fairbrother – member profile
It’s with a heavy heart that we write our next committee member profile. Why? Well long-standing member, Lindsey Fairbrother, has sold her pharmacy to be freed up to use her expertise and knowledge to help others be as successful as she has been as a pharmacy contractor. As a result, she has to step down as a Committee Member. We are all going to miss her. So, read on for a sort of tribute to one of the most inspiring, passionate and positive individuals we’ve ever worked with!
Lindsey Fairbrother profile
“I grew up in Lancashire by the sea and unlike some of my peers, didn’t have a weekend job in a pharmacy even though my dad was a pharmacist. No, I worked in an old-fashioned café making tea and delivering steak pies to customers, and I was in my element!
“Never sure what I wanted to do for a career – I looked at hotel management and optometry – and fell into pharmacy almost by default, gained my Pharmacy degree at Nottingham University and completed my pre-reg with Co-op. I liked the ethos of the company and when I was asked, aged 22, whether I’d like to open a brand new store in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, I didn’t hesitate.
“A number of years spent running the pharmacy, and others, and I admit I became a little bored with just being an employee. So, I took on a few different roles at Co-op’s head office starting with running a pharmacist team commissioned to work in GP practice, then developing a new PMR system and ending up getting involved in the commercial side of the business. Cue my stint at buying and running the pharmaceutical warehouse. This included flying to various places in Europe to source products, setting up parallel imports including a regulatory team and even collaborating with a company in China to manufacture generics.
“All very exciting and rewarding but when Co-op merged in 2008, I chose to take redundancy. I’d not practiced pharmacy for 8 years so I contacted Peter Prokopa, pharmacy owner and current chief officer of Community Pharmacy Shropshire, and pleaded: “please can I come and learn now to be a pharmacist again?” Luckily, he said “yes” and I fell back into community pharmacy and, at the same time, I took up a non-exec Director role on the Board of South Staffordshire PCT. I also took on the role of service development lead with Shropshire LPC.
“I love challenge and variation and when an opportunity arose with a colleague I’d worked with at the Co-op, to open a new contract pharmacy, we grabbed it with both hands. We opened the pharmacy in Hatton and named it Goodlife Pharmacy but after one year, a GP practice poached my business partner. It was a case of sell it or do it myself – I chose the latter!
“In 2017, I qualified as an IP and began working one day a week in a local GP practice on top of my days in the pharmacy to develop my competence. I joined Community Pharmacy Derbyshire a few months before Covid hit, when I set up and ran a mass vaccination centre. I then took on the role of Independent Regional Representative for Community Pharmacy England, being responsible for Shropshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire LPCs as well as sitting on the national Community Pharmacy England Committee and being chair of the Legal and Regulatory subcommittee and vice chair of Communications and Public Affairs subcommittee.
Most recently, I’ve taken part in the IP Pathfinder project which was a huge success. We’ve delivered over 1,500 NHS consultations to patients referred to us from two practices, as well as developing successful private clinics in travel, weight management, hayfever and as a Yellow Fever vaccination centre.
“16 years later and I’m still here after taking the business and shaping it exactly how I wanted – the team and I have really made so many things happen. We have the right skill mix to enable me to spend my day providing patient consultations and acting as mentor and DPP to my Foundation Year pharmacy students. It’s been a real pleasure to be able to seize every opportunity that comes my way. One of the things I’m most proud of is running a Covid clinic which was an exhausting but amazing thing to do. After all the restrictions had been lifted, we held a party in a local field with a marquee for all the volunteers. They, my customers and my team have been what’s made everything worthwhile – I love them all!
“When I’m not working, I want to be out riding my bike. Cycling has always been a passion of mine ever since my sister and I, aged 15 and 18 respectively, rode from St Annes to County Durham. (with permission from our parents I must add!). I’ve since completed Ride Prudential four times and cycled from Whitby for Twickenham for charity. When I met my partner Aidan 25 years ago, I got involved with his football club’s charity which sends a team of cyclists from Huddersfield Town FC to the club where the last away game of the season takes place to raise funds for a local breakfast club. I’ve ridden from Huddersfield to Cardiff, Ipswich and Exeter in the last few years…it’s a great way to see the country, although hard work. Last year Day 1 was Huddersfield to St George’s Park near Lichfield involving many hills and over 100 miles of cycling!
“We do a lot of walking too which our springer spaniel, Wilson, is always very happy about. We’ve walked the West Highland Way, Coast to Coast, Hadrian’s Wall path, Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, Offa’s Dyke Path, many others and hiked all over Germany. I’m looking forward to doing even more cycling, walking and generally exploring outdoors over the coming years now I have sold Goodlife Pharmacy. Ready for another exciting chapter in the life of Lindsey Fairbrother – watch this space everyone!”
