Like many, I have experienced the effects of people struggling with their mental health, as a parent, as a family member, as a colleague and as a friend. I have experienced a sense of personal inadequacy in the face of the scale of the mounting mental health pandemic, which affects so many. Being a trustee of West Sussex Mind is one very small way I can seek to make a valuable difference.
I consider it a huge privilege to be able to use some of the skills I have learned to enable others, far more skilled than I am, to make a lasting difference to the lives of the thousands of individual people who use our service.
A large part of being a trustee is working with other trustees and the senior leadership team to enable our staff to provide the best service possible to our service users. I have a background in leadership in business and finance and also in local churches.
I believe charities are fundamentally different from businesses: after all, what business finance director would say the best year was the year we were able to spend the most money (in an effective way, of course)? But I also believe there is much that can be learned from well-led businesses about how to enable passionate people to work together to make the biggest possible difference for the benefit of others.
I am proud to be able to say I am a very small part of enabling West Sussex Mind to make a valuable difference to the lives of so many people throughout West Sussex.