Kirsten Hedeager

I am Kirsten Hedeager, from Vejle, Denmark. I am a mother of three grown up kids, living with my husband in a joint community in Vejle.

I travelled a lot before I went into Physio-school which I finished in 1981, many years back. I worked in different departements in Hospitals in Denmark as well as in Switzerland before I by accident happened to be admitted to the Lymph-therapist education at the Foeldi school in Freiburg. This changed my carreer completely, and I worked in the field of Lymphology ever since, 25 years as of the 19th of September this year. Moving back to Denmark in 1995 I joined the Lymphtherapist organization right away and was elected president in 2000, a seat I still represent. I am also a member of the board of the Danish Lymphoedema Framework.

Pernille Henriksen

Pernille is a patient with primary lymphoedema in left leg diagnosed after 3 years of intermittent and unexplainable swelling when she was 20. She has a Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management and has been working within the medical industry for the past 25 years. Having lived in four European countries and experienced the different health care systems and how patients are managed with this condition she is now an international patient advocate and speaker. She is a content provider on different social media platforms with the aim to inform, empower, connect and support patients and their families from all over the world. Pernille is a board member of the patient driven Danish Lymphoedema Association (DALYFO) and she is the VASCERN ePAG co-chair of the Pediatric and Primary Lymphedema working group. 

Tonny Karlsmark, MD, Assoc. Professor

Tonny Karlsmark is consultant and associated professor in Dermato-venereology working at Bispebjerg Hospital, University of Copenhagen. As former head of the department for 15 years, he has experience as well as a diploma in National Health Service Management. He has held Honorary positions such as chairman of the Danish Dermatological Society 2003-2005 and chairman of the Danish Lymphoedema Framework (DLF) from 2010.

His main research areas include wound healing and treatment of chronic oedema. In 1990 he defended

his thesis about “Electrically induced dermal changes” – a morphologic study of porcine skin after transfer of low-moderate amount of electrically energy.

He has published more than 115 articles in international journals and acts as advisor for more than 10 Ph.D. degrees and made opposition (acting as critic) for 1 doctoral thesis and 9 Ph.D. degrees.

Tonny joined the ILF Board in June 2018.

Susan Nørregaard RN, DH

Susan is a specialist nurse in wound healing and lymphoedema working at Bispebjerg University Hospital in Copenhagen. She graduated from Sankt Lukas Stiftelsens Nursing School in Hellerup in 1988. Together with Professor Finn Gottrup and other collaborators, she established the Copenhagen Wound Healing Center in 1996 working as staff nurse in the outpatient clinic, with clinical responsibility for the development of clinical guidelines for the treatment of venous leg ulcers.

Susan has 25 years of experience in treating chronic oedema and in 2006, she established the first multidisciplinary lymphoedema clinic in Denmark, at the Copenhagen Wound Healing Center together with Dr. Tonny Karlsmark and Dr. Bo Jørgensen.

Together with Dr. Tonny Karlsmark she established the Danish Lymphoedema Framework in 2010 and she has been an ILF board member since 2011.

Susan has been a teacher at postgraduate education for healthcare professionals in Copenhagen and has developed teaching programmes for nurses treating patients with compression therapy. She has coordinated several international research projects and has been author and co-author on scientific articles.