Why I became an Alongside trustee

I have been a trustee at Alongside and Julian House for almost seven years, serving as vice chair for much of that time, and I now have the honour and privilege of being elected chair. I am a volunteer who, like all our volunteers across the charity, wants to give some time to support our important work alongside our clients.

I see my role as a trustee being that of supporting the leadership team in setting out how we aim to take the charity forward in the longer term and providing an external, independent view on how we are working now to help ensure we are doing it as effectively as possible. The day-to-day work of our teams is central to what we do, but I believe that the contribution as a trustee and also as chair is a small but important ingredient in helping us all do the best job we can.

I became a trustee to bring my experience from 30 years’ work as a manager in the NHS to this charity, where I hope to enable people from those parts of society that often face obstacles in accessing health and care to have the space to stabilise their lives as a first step in moving forward with greater independence and confidence.

My visits to our services and seeing our staff working alongside our clients have shown me this is no easy task, with setbacks and obstacles often appearing on the horizon. Seeing how our staff deal with such challenges with determination and good humour is inspiring and humbling and every time reinforces my pride in volunteering as a trustee at Alongside.