Christine Hancock

Christine Hancock was the General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, 1989-2001

She attended Newstead Wood School for Girls, and then began her nursing career at King's College Hospital in London. After various clinical nursing posts she became a ward sister or head nurse at the National Heart Hospital in London in a cardiac coronary care unit doing advanced research. She undertook a degree at the London School of Economics and also qualified as a midwife and mental health nursing.

In 1985 she was appointed Chief Executive of Waltham Forest Health Authority in north-east London.

She was elected as the 24th President of the International Council of Nurses in 2001. Since 2006, she has been European Director of the Oxford Health Alliance, an organisation committed to stemming the epidemic of chronic disease through prevention.