Trustees

Ashley worked as a GP in Tyneside for 30 years before moving to Cumbria where he continued his work as a GP as well as leading the local Integrated Care Community. This included setting up a social prescribing scheme where every GP practice in the area had access to a link worker receiving referrals from health and care staff. One of the recurring problems being identified was loneliness with increasing evidence revealing the psychological and even physical morbidity associated with this problem. Now retired as a GP, Ashley has been involved in helping to set up Linking Lives schemes in Cumbria. He and his wife attend a local ecumenical church and they enjoy spending as much time as possible with their three grandsons.

Bev’s initial career was in finance having qualified as a chartered accountant. She then trained in Theology at Queens Foundation and obtained an MA in Contextual Theology from Birmingham University. She was minister of Daw End and Aldridge Methodist Churches between 2011 and 2021 and during this time held various roles within the church as well as supporting the community including chair of governors at a Primary School and trustee of an educational academy. She retired as a minister in 2021. Bev has a passion to address loneliness having seen many examples during her role as minister and her past experience in accountancy are now being applied in her role as our finance trustee.

Alan has much experience at a senior level within various national and local charities including Chief Executive of CPO and as trustee of Pilgrims Friend Society. He has a real concern and interest in engaging with older people who are on the margins of society and is able to bring this wisdom to our board of trustees. 

Until her retirement, Shelagh spent the previous 28 years as a County Councillor. During, this time she has chaired the Social Services Committee later becoming portfolio holder on the Executive Committee. For 15 of those years she was a non-executive Director on three NHS Boards. Her love of older people began when she worked in Adult and Further Education, teaching retired people to cook and then tutored a full-time foundation course in Community Care. Currently she chairs Future Years, The Yorkshire and Humber Forum on Ageing and leads the Age Action Alliance Isolation and Loneliness Working group and is an Ambassador for the Campaign to End Loneliness. An active Christian, her regular place of worship is Bolton Priory in the Yorkshire Dales. Shelagh received her OBE in 2014 for her work with the elderly.

Peter has held a number of senior positions in business, several of which involved company start-ups. These include a period as Senior Vice President of Nokia, CEO of Vertu and CEO of Zone V which is a start-up company providing mobile telecommunications for older people. He also runs a successful business consultancy. He was chair of trustees of Link Visiting Scheme in Wokingham for 5 years immediately following the registration of the charity. He is an active member of Kings Church in Wokingham