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Sandra Gidley – Shadow Health Minister

Shadow Health Minister
MP for Romsey
Liberal Democrat candidate for Romsey & Southampton North

Biography

Sandra Gidley has been MP for Romsey since winning a sensational victory at a by-election in May 2000. She is now a Shadow Health spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats.

Sandra is a qualified pharmacist and before becoming an MP she managed a busy pharmacy store. Born in Wales, she was educated at Eggars Grammar School in Alton, Hampshire; the Afcent International School in Brunssum, Netherlands; and the Windsor School in Hamm, Germany. She took her Bachelor of Pharmacy degree at the University of Bath in 1978, and worked as a pharmacist and pharmacy manager from 1990 until her election to Westminster.

Sandra joined the Liberal Democrats in 1994, and was elected as a councillor to the Test Valley Borough Council in 1995. In 1997 she became the youngest female Mayor of Romsey, and in 2000 she was elected to the House of Commons at a by-election following the death of the Conservative MP, Michael Colvin.

Appointed to the Liberal Democrat front bench as spokesperson on women's issues after successfully holding her seat at the 2001 General Election, she also became spokesperson for older people in 2003. Since the election of Sir Menzies Campbell as party leader in March 2006 she has been a frontbench spokesperson on health.

Sandra and her husband, Bill, an electronics engineer, married in 1979 and have lived in Romsey since 1990. They have a son and a daughter, who both attended local schools. Sandra was for many years a voluntary antenatal teacher with the National Childbirth Trust and is a vice-president of the Romsey Hospital Appeal and the local MacMillan Cancer Relief.

Sandra has chaired the Gender Balance Task Force, an initiative to get more women into politics, and currently chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Eye Health. Sandra is vice-chair of the All Party Parliamentary groups on Men's Health, AIDS, Cancer and Domestic Violence as well as co-chair of the All Parliamentary Party Group on Mental Health. Sandra is also a member of the influential Health Select Committee.

Sandra enjoys reading, cookery, the theatre and a tough game of badminton.

Experience

Qualified pharmacist and for many years was a voluntary antenatal teacher with the National Childbirth Trust

Parliamentary Experience

2006- Shadow Health spokesperson, Shadow spokesperson for older people 2005-6, Shadow spokesperson for Women 2001-03 and then Shadow Minister for Women 2003-5, Deputy spokesperson in the Health team 2001-02.