The trustees

I became a Trustee of the board in 2012 and Chair during 2014. I was a senior manager in the Department of Health for 33 years, working as Private Secretary to Ministers and a policy manager for the social care workforce.

Being an openly gay man, I am very passionate about making a difference in the LGBT community through the work of Yorkshire MESMAC.

It is my privilege to be Chair of an excellent and committed Board of Trustees. The work of Yorkshire MESMAC, our commitment to our service users, and the outstanding staff who deliver our services is something of which we can all be very proud.

I have known Yorkshire MESMAC since early 2000s when I began working clinically in HIV services in Leeds. I have worked for over 20 years in a variety of healthcare roles including as a specialist HIV dietitian both in the UK and as a healthcare mentor in South Africa, a Public Health Manager designing, commissioning and managing sexual health services and currently as a Service Manager at Bradford Teaching Hospitals.

I am passionate about improving health outcomes particularly for marginalised groups and making health and care services truly person centered, holistic and accessible.

I joined the Board of Trustees in 2020 as I wanted to contribute to and support an organisation who's mission and values so mirror my own and I look forward to a time when we can meet beyond Zoom!

 I became a trustee of the board in early 2020 and in such a short amount of times it’s been truly amazing. 

As a open gay man and a service user of MESMAC I really wanted to see ‘how it all worked’ and be apart of a charity that has supported me and many people around me.

I've spent the last 10 years working in learning and development. Working with businesses to grow their employees, forward thinking and ultimately become self sufficient.

It’s an overwhelming feeling to be apart of such an amazing charity.

I was born in Dinnington in Yorkshire. Dad was a coal miner and Mum was a weaver. In 1963 we moved to Manchester where Dad continued coal mining and Mum continued weaving. I realized that I was Gay at the age of 12. Manchester was an exciting place to grow up in and gave me opportunities that Dinnington would never, and still wouldn’t have given me.

I trained as a General Nurse at Manchester Royal Infirmary and by 1984 I found myself nursing some of the first HIV patients that came to hospital. These were hard times as we were literally ‘learning on the job’. I progressed quite quickly through the ranks and soon became an HIV Clinical Nurse Specialist.

I worked at the Charles Bell Unit at the old Middlesex Hospital caring for adult HIV patients and then worked in Edinburgh with Dr Jacqueline Mock specializing in paediatric HIV.

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work at a hospital in Los Angeles, working with HIV patients who did not have health insurance. This helped me to broaden my HIV knowledge.

Having left the NHS to go into the ‘Pub Game’ with my partner I eventually found myself in Leeds.

I joined Yorkshire MESMAC in 1994 as their first Operations Manager, a post that I thoroughly enjoyed for almost 10 years.

I left Yorkshire MESMAC  to work for a company selling Sexual Health products and did this for almost 10 years.

In 2017 I rejoined the NHS as a Staff Nurse and I now work as a Ward Manager for Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

Tom invited me to join the Board of Trustees at Yorkshire MESMAC in about 2007, a position I was proud to accept.

I sit on the Staffing Sub Group which considers all matters relating to staffing and recruitment.

The work of Yorkshire MESMAC is unrivalled and continues thanks to the collective efforts of the Staff Team and the Board. The organization is fortunate to have such a group of people dedicated to developing services which enable its service users to become experts in their own lives. I have always been proud to be associated with Yorkshire MESMAC and will be equally proud to continue my involvement as long as I am able.

I joined the Board of Trustees in mid-2020, but have been aware of the work Yorkshire MESMAC do for some years, through many friends being service users. My role on the board is the Lead Safeguarding Trustee, and I am deeply passionate about ensuring each person we provide a service to is met with the same incredible service across Yorkshire. Having joined during a global pandemic, right now I am so excited to be able to get out there and experience first hand the amazing work we do, and enable my passion and experience support and steer the charity.

I work within the Heath and Social Care Sector, and currently am employed as the Head of Safeguarding and Data Protection for a Charity across England and Wales.