A trust chief executive has cancelled her resignation three months after handing in her notice.

Sussex Partnership Trust chief executive Lisa Rodrigues, who stepped down in January in order to write a novel and cycle to the Canary Islands, has told HSJ she will not be leaving after all.

Her announcement, endorsed by the trust’s board directors and governors, meant the trust had to cancel interviews with nine applicants, mostly chief executives, who had been shortlisted as candidates for her job.

She told HSJ one of her reasons for originally wanting to take six months off work was because her adult daughter had been undergoing neurosurgery.

Police also announced in January that they were investigating the deaths of four people at the trust, which Ms Rodrigues says was unconnected to her decision.

She said she changed her mind after her daughter’s health improved and the trust appointed a new medical director and won new contracts.

In addition, Ms Rodrigues said that she realised how “exciting” it would be to work in the challenging financial climate ahead.

She has written 10,000 more words of her novel, and is still planning to take part in a bike ride, but to Paris.

Another book, about “female” management skills, has attracted the interest of a publisher, but she has yet to secure a deal, she said.

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