Rachel Walker has been working with heart patients for 14 years, including being a staff nurse on a cardiac care unit and a research sister, identifying and working with patients on research projects. Over the last four years she has specialised in inherited cardiac conditions, including the cardiomyopathies (heart muscle diseases) and the channelopathies (disorders of the ion channels).

As an inherited cardiac conditions nurse specialist at the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, she is in a nurse led clinic, providing long term follow-up for patients with inherited cardiac conditions and screening of relatives. She works closely with the genetics service and provides telephone support for patients and their families.

Early in 2012 she also became a cardiomyopathy support nurse for the Cardiomyopathy Association, a charity that provides information and support to affected families. In this role she provides advice and support to families by telephone, email and social media and provides medical articles for the charity’s quarterly magazine CMA News. She also helps run the charity’s Yorkshire Cardiomyopathy Support Group.