Celebrating our colleagues this National Pathology 2026

National Pathology Week is an annual celebration of pathology in healthcare and medical science and its vital role in providing diagnostic information to patients and clinicians.

Pathology underpins almost all clinical services, and it is estimated that 95% of clinical pathways rely on patients having access to efficient, timely and cost-effective pathology services. We are celebrating our colleagues working within Pathology in CTM this week, highlighting their work and the different services within this discipline.

Gavin Rees is a Biomedical Scientist in Haematology and Blood Transfusion here at Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board. One of his main responsibilities in his role is to test patient blood samples and provide the clinical teams with important results to help diagnose, treat, and monitor a range of conditions that affect blood cells. These conditions can include anaemia, infection or even leukaemia’s. Gavin also works in the Blood Transfusion Department testing patient’s blood to determine their blood group and other important factors to provide potentially life-saving blood transfusions to patients. Using scientific skills, Gavin is able to determine and interpret results and provide life quality enhancing/life-saving blood products which contribute significantly to patient care.

Catrin Jones is an Associate Practitioner (AP) in Cellular Pathology at Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB. Catrin is responsible for dealing with patient tissue samples that are taken and sent to the cellular pathology department; these samples can range from a small skin sample to an entire organ! Working within a team of Medical Laboratory Assistants, other Associate Practitioners, Biomedical Scientists and Pathologists to complete tasks involved in the day to day running of a laboratory, Catrin’s main role is preparing samples to be viewed on glass slides for a Pathologist to view under the microscope. This involves embedding tissue in paraffin wax to produce a tissue block and using a microtome to cut thin sections from this. These tissue sections are mounted on slides and stained so cellular detail of the tissue can be seen. This allows the pathologist to clearly view the slide and give a diagnosis. It is here that they would be able to see clinical conditions including inflammatory diseases such as Crohn’s, or even cancerous and pre-cancerous cells. Catrin also supports the running of specialist techniques such as immunohistochemistry that provide further cellular detail for Pathologists to view and report as well as ensuring referrals to genetic/genomic testing are done. The service we provide ensures that a patient has a full and comprehensive diagnosis that can help guide their treatment pathway.

Shan Passmore is a Senior Biomedical Scientist in Microbiology / Virology. Shan is the team leader who supervises the day-to-day delivery of diagnostic Microbiology / Virology services that performs infectious disease screening for both bacteria and viruses. In Microbiology, the team detect and identify bacteria in a wide range of patient samples, such as blood, urine, and faeces. This helps clinical teams to diagnose patients with infections such as sepsis, which can be very harmful if not treated quickly. In the laboratories once the bacteria are identified the team can then determine the correct antibiotic to administer to the patient. The Virology service at Cwm Taf Morgannwg plays an essential role in the detection of a number of viruses, including those involved in respiratory symptoms.

Laura Hewitt is a Medical Lab Assistant within the Health Board and is responsible for supporting the Lab Biomedical Scientist and other healthcare professionals in performing diagnostic testing that helps detect and diagnose bacteria and infections. Laura is responsible for collecting, preparing and processing samples such as blood, urine, pus and genital swabs, ensuring accuracy and efficiency throughout all stages of the testing process. Laura feels that the best part of her role is knowing that what she is doing is directly helping people and contributes to their wellbeing.

Katelin Jenkins is a Biomedical Scientist in Haematology and Blood Transfusion. As a Biomedical Scientist, Katelin works behind the scenes of the healthcare service performing a range of tests to ensure that the patients get the care that they need. Katelin is passionate about haematology and blood bank because she feels very involved in patient care and having an impact on patients, even though she is not in a patient facing role. As a Biomedical Scientist Katelin gets to do interesting tasks, such as blood film morphology where we look at a patient’s blood under the microscope, describing the cells we see.

Samantha Howell is a Specialist Biomedical Scientist, whose role involves handling patient specimens in the lab from small biopsies to large colon, uterus and breast specimens. Samantha dissects the specimens and chooses the most clinically useful areas that will help a diagnosis to be made. These pieces of tissue are then embedded into paraffin wax blocks where thin sections are cut, stained and assessed on microscopic slides to give a diagnosis that will allow patients to get the most accurate and appropriate care and treatment. Samantha’s favourite part of the role is seeing a wide variety of specimens and learning about anatomy, whilst also knowing that whatever they find will help patients find out what’s wrong so they can start to help them to get better.

Ffion Evans and Heidi Weekes. Ffion is a Biomedical Scientist and Heidi is a Medical Laboratory Assistant in the Biochemistry department here at Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board.

Heidi is responsible for receiving, preparing and processing samples such as blood and urine, maintaining laboratory equipment and performing quality checks.

Ffion’s responsibilities include analysing patient samples and evaluating the results, operating and maintaining sophisticated laboratory equipment and ensuring quality assurance. They work collaboratively to ensure an efficient and safe diagnostic service.

Rachel Saurin and Roger Morgan. Rachel is a Quality Support Officer and Roger is a Quality Management Officer in Pathology. Rachel’s duties include minute taking, completing audits, temperature mapping of laboratory equipment and temperature monitoring support. Rachel is a great support to the quality team!

Roger’s role includes managing audits, quality training, compliance with UKAS, HTA and MHRA standards, temperature monitoring, non-conformities, Datix investigations, KPI reporting, pathology transport meetings, MDR activities, and administration of the electronic QMS. Roger added this about his role: “I have worked in Quality for the majority of my career so believe I can pass on my experience and knowledge. I also enjoy contributing to improvements within Pathology, that will often lead to better mandatory and assessment inspections. Quality is essential in managing consistency in processes and procedures to ensure the patient gets the correct results and subsequently the best possible treatment.”

Interested in a role within Pathology at CTM?