Cris Allen, the quiet and unassuming former RCN professional lead for mental health nursing and consultant editor of Mental Health Practice, has died at the age of 70. Cris worked as a builder, a milkman and in a hospital laundry before turning to mental health nursing. As well as being a registered mental health nurse, he was also a registered learning disability nurse and an active member of the RCN mental health forum before taking over from Tom Sandford as RCN professional lead for mental health in 2000.