Our Team

Our team is based at our Head Offices in Cheltenham Spa. From here we all focus on the skills we have to make sure we are delivering the best we can for sick children and young people and families.

Our Board of Trustees John Evans - Chairman Trevor Jones    Martin Kitcatt    Andrew Osbourne – Treasurer    Paul Richardson Penny Webb Rosemary Rogers Andrew Wigmore

Our management team                Colin Dyer – Chief Executive       Linda Partridge – Director of Programmes Miranda Chalk – Director of Fundraising Vanessa Snell – Director of Operations

Programmes Team – Jodie, Alice, Hannah and Rachel

The programmes team are vital in our focus on interaction and relationship development with the WellChild families, our children’s nurses, past and present researchers and within our partnership projects. They are WellChild’s ears in listening to sick children, young people and their families as they are in direct contact with those who directly benefit from our work. The team also have a close working relationship with our fantastic team of nurses, researchers and project managers throughout the UK as we continue to support them in every way possible.

Come and meet some of our WellChild Children’s nurses.

Rachel is WellChild’s specialist coordinator for Wolfram syndrome families. Her role is in partnership with Birmingham Children’s Hospital and is responsible for ensuring that those touched by this rare condition do not feel like they are coping on their own.

Visit our Wolfram syndrome section to read more about how we’re helping.

Helping Hands Team – Lee, Alastair and Sarah

We carry out Helping Hands home improvement projects in the homes and gardens of sick children.

The Helping Hands programme has grown significantly since it launched with its first garden makeover in 2007. Since then the team have been hard at work developing all aspects of the practical home makeover projects from the application process to building the volunteer and corporate involvement, creating a dramatically positive impact to the amount of children, young people and the families who benefit from them. In February 2012 we completed our 100th Helping Hands project and with your help we can’t wait to complete hundreds more.

See how you can help change the lives of children who are in desperate need of a Helping Hands makeover project.

Fundraising Team - Dorian, Kate and Sarah

Fundraising is essential for WellChild as we rely completely on voluntary donations to fund our work. Without these individual donations, corporate partnerships, trusts and legacy giving we simply would not be able to continue the work we do for the children and families in the ways they need most. This team work closely with our varied financial supporters in assisting them with all that they need to support us so wonderfully.

See in what areas you can support WellChild’s work.

Events Team - Steven, Stacey and Jess

Our experienced events team run a busy calendar of challenge, social and beneficiary events throughout the year and we’re building on these all the time. From high profile gala dinners, such as the Energy Dinner sponsored by Platts and our Helping Hands Gala Dinner at the Savoy to the highly regarded Cotswold Fairs and our tough UK and overseas challenges, the team strive to deliver well orchestrated events which are essential in helping us raise more money to help the children who need it most.

Read more about our fantastic events and see how you can get involved.

PR and Communications – Chris, Hatty and Isobel

It is important for us to tell people about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. Using media and online social media channels, keeping our website up to date and creating publications are daily tasks for the busy team who have a wealth of experience in both editorial media and public relations within charities. Quite possibly the largest task for this team is orchestrating the PR plan for the annual WellChild Awards, an event which has a massive media interest from across the UK and worldwide.

Take a look at what we’ve been up to recently in our news section.

Operations Team – Cheryl and Rachel

Our operations team keep WellChild running smoothly on a day to day basis. They run a fantastic support team for all members of staff managing our databases, support services, HR and financial department. They are also responsible for the running of our volunteer programme ensuring that we are looking after all the fabulous people who give up their time to lend a hand both at events and working internally in the head office.

Volunteers

Our volunteers are just great! Assisting us with all sorts of activities up and down the country, they continually display energy and focus on whatever the job entails and generally have a great time while they are doing it. These individuals form an essential part of the WellChild team and help us in a variety of events including attending fundraisers, cheering and supporting at challenge events and spreading the word of WellChild’s charitable activities. We also have the opportunity to include volunteers as part of the team at our Cheltenham head office.

Take a look at our volunteering opportunities and see how you can provide practical support to help us.