Trustees – Duchy Health Charity

Left to right: Mark Williams (Treasurer and Company Secretary), Dr John Evers, Carol O'Brien, Tim Guy, Dr Tamsyn Anderson, Sally-Jane Coode, Jonathon Croggon, Olivia Miller, Katy Hutchinson, Katharine Viscountess Falmouth (President), Michael Galsworthy CVO CBE DL (Honorary President), Dr Barbara Vann (Chair), Gay Coley, Jenny Taylor, Aldyth Hambly-Staite

President

Katharine, Viscountess Falmouth

Katharine, Viscountess Falmouth who, along with her husband, Viscount Falmouth, runs the Tregothnan Estate near Truro, joined us as President on 13 November 2023.

Katharine has great experience of charitable work, particularly related to many aspects of health and wellbeing. She worked hard with Cornwall Foundation NHS Trust to raise £500,000 towards the Level 4 provision for mental health (Sowenna) for children and young people. She has also been involved in Promoting Effective Parenting – an organisation which no longer exists; Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW) and the Cornwall Women’s Centre.

Once a year the Tregothan Estate also hosts a charity open garden, regularly raising in excess of £50,000 for their chosen charity. Past recipients of which have been Cancer Research UK, St Petrocs, and i-Sight Cornwall.

Katharine will be supported in her new role by our former President, Michael Galsworthy CVO CBE DL who now becomes our Honorary President.

We are delighted that Katharine has joined the Charity and we are very much looking forward to working with her as our new President.

Honorary President

Michael Galsworthy CVO CBE DL

Born in Truro in 1944 and has spent the majority of his working life in Cornwall, but with extensive periods also in America, Italy, France and Germany. He was a member of the Prince’s Council (Duchy of Cornwall) from 1984-2003, High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1994 and Vice Lord Lieutenant from 2002 to 2014. He was also the chairman of the public/private sector initiative of In Pursuit of Excellence for the promotion of business enterprise and commerce in Cornwall 1994-2000.

For a three year period until 1993 he was chairman of the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust taking it into Trust status for the first time.

He has been a Trustee of the DHC from 24 September 2001 to 25 November 2009

He was chairman from 3 November 2003 to 23 November 2009

He became President on 1 November 2014, and Honorary President on 13 November 2023.

The Duchy Health Charity’s Board of Trustees meets four times a year.

Board members

Dr Barbara Vann DL (Chair)
Mark Williams (Treasurer and Company Secretary)
Sally-Jane Coode MBE DL (Vice Chair and Chair of Grant Cttee)
Carol O’Brien
Aldyth Hambly-Staite
Jonathon Croggon
Dr John Evers
Katy Hutchinson
Dr Tamsyn Anderson
Prof Tony Woolf
Olivia Miller
Gaynor Coley
Jenny Taylor

The Board has two subcommittees:

The Finance Committee

(Chair: Mark Williams) meets annually and oversees the charity’s finances and the investment of funds on the stock market.

The Grant Committee

(Chair: Sally-Jane Coode) meets quarterly and receives all applications for grants. It can make decisions on donations up to £30,000, and in the case of applications for larger sums, the Grant Committee makes recommendations to the Board.

The Charity’s Finances

The Duchy Health Charity became a grant making body in 1989. The charity’s funds derive from the sale of the original Duchy Hospital in Truro. That capital sum was invested and produces an annual net income of approximately £200,000 which is used to further the charity’s objectives, which includes grant distribution to support other charities, helping to support and promote the health and wellbeing of the people in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

The charity’s investments are held with M&G and are overseen by the Finance Committee, which includes a number of trustees with a finance background.

Our Investment Policy is monitored by the Finance Committee and our our annual accounts are audited by a local firm of accountants and comply with The Statement of Recommended Accounting Practice for Charities. They are available to view on the Companies House and Charity Commission websites.

Dr Barbara Vann – Chair of the Duchy Health Charity

Having been a Headteacher for 23 years, Chair of Cornwall Partnership Foundation (NHS) Trust for five years and a Trustee and Chair of the Duchy Health Charity, Dr Vann has developed a passion for inter-collaborative working between professionals: primarily educationalists, social care and health professionals. This is based upon belief and experience that indicates that more can be achieved together for the benefit of communities and individuals with this approach.

Dr Vann holds degrees at Masters and PhD levels which focused on accountability and collaborative working in education. She was awarded an Honorary Degree by the University of Exeter (Hon.DSc) in 2018 for services to the mental health of children and young people.

Initially, as a Headteacher and as Chair of Duchy Health Charity, Dr Vann has, with the Trustees, led the development and establishment of school-based Integrated Health Centres at six sites across Cornwall.

Working with all the Trustees, the Board has reviewed its role and that of the Charity. It has run successful conferences and seminars for many years which are intended to provoke thought and act as catalysts for change both in terms of practice and behaviours but always with the people of Cornwall as the focus. Together, we have raised the profile of the Charity to it now being seen as one of the ‘go to’ organisations in Cornwall.

Sally-Jane Coode – Vice Chair; Chair, Grant Committee

Sally-Jane became a Trustee in 2005, following a varied career in management. This covered the co-founding and running of an engineering company, the founding of a new golf and country club, an event management consultancy and fundraising for various charities.

Sally-Jane is a FE College Governor and Trustee for one other charity.

Mark Williams – Treasurer and Company Secretary; Chair, Finance Committee

Mark became a Trustee in 2014. He qualified as a chartered accountant in 2002, before specialising in the ‘charity and not for profit’ sector for 20 years.

He was a Partner at a local firm of chartered accountants until May 2023, acting for a large number of well-known organisations throughout Cornwall.

Carol O’Brien – Grant Committee

Carol became a Trustee in 2001, having studied physiotherapy at Liverpool University. Carol practiced in the Midlands before moving to Cornwall in 1974, where she worked at the City Hospital, Truro, and the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust, Treliske.

In 1979 she moved to English China Clays (ECC), looking after a workforce of 8,500 with a high incidence of back pain. She furthered her education by studying ergonomics and health and safety, becoming national Chair of Physiotherapy in Occupational Health for nine years.

When ECC’s Medical Department closed in early 1993, Carol moved to the Lemon Street GP Practice, Truro, to work in Primary Care until she retired in 2010.

Aldyth Hambly-Staite – Grant Committee; Awards and Conferences

Aldyth became a Trustee in 2015. She has lived in Cornwall for 40 years, initially as a GP’s wife, later working for the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust, Treliske, and then as a District Nursing Sister in Cornwall.

Her Masters Degree is in Healthcare/Professional Education, with research into the needs of carers of the terminally ill at home. She worked at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.

She founded an innovative local Palliative Care Clinic which won an international nursing multidisciplinary award in 2005. Realising the benefits to patients, she trained as one of the first independent Nurse Prescribers in the South West.

Aldyth helps to raise funds for various Cornish charities and for three years was Chairman of the Cornwall Branch of the NSPCC.

Dr John Evers – Grant Committee; Awards and Conferences

John became a Trustee in 2018, having been a consultant physician in Cornwall for nearly 30 years.

He quickly developed his role as Community Geriatrician and forged close links between GP’s and care for the elderly, in and near, community hospitals.

He was one of the first teaching consultants at the Peninsula Medical School, Truro. He is a founder member of St Mary Singers, the Deputy Choir of Truro Cathedral.

Jonathon Croggon – Finance Committee

Jonathon became a Trustee in 2016, having worked for 30 years in the investment management business, with experience in the management of charities and institutional assets.

He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment and has a degree in Economics and History from Queen Mary College University, London. He worked initially for the investment management division of a major US investment bank before returning to Cornwall.

Katy Hutchinson – Grant Committee

Helen joined the Trust as Administrator in April 2022, having spent the previous two years at Healthwatch Cornwall and prior to that, 9 years in various administrative, community support and project co-ordination roles at Cornwall Council.

She grew up in Cheshire, later moving to Nottingham, where she worked at Boots Head Office in different communications and operational roles and also spent some time working for the British Heart Foundation in Northampton.

She relocated to Cornwall in 2009 and supports the Trustees in delivering the charity’s mission, ensuring good governance and compliance in everything we do.

Helen is the ‘go to’ person for all enquiries into the Charity.

Prof Tony Woolf – Grant Committee; Awards and Conferences

Tony is a Professor of Rheumatology with a long and varied career in medicine having developed and provided a rheumatology service for people across Cornwall over 35 years, including the development of an osteoporosis service which was granted the title The Duchess of Cornwall Centre for Osteoporosis.

He strongly believes in the importance of evidence-based medicine having been involved in encouraging, supporting and delivering research in the NHS as a researcher, Research and Development Director and Consultant Rheumatologist at RCHT Treliske, and Clinical Director of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network South West Peninsula.

He has worked not only locally and nationally but across Europe and globally to influence policy and practice to make musculoskeletal health a public health priority through research and leadership and as a founder of the Bone and Joint Decade (transitioned into the Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health). Tony was responsible for bringing together patient and professional organisations along with researchers to achieve the objective of making musculoskeletal health a global priority.

Olivia Miller – Grant Committee

Olivia is a Solicitor in the Corporate Team at Stephens Scown and qualified in November 2018 after gaining a Law LLB (Hons) from the University of Exeter, a Maîtrise en Droit Master 1 from the Université de Rennes 1 and an MSc in Law and Business from the University of Law, Birmingham before joining Stephens Scown in August 2016.

A member of the Charity Law Association, Olivia specialises in Charity Law and assists charities of all sizes in a number of sectors with matters including governance advice, mergers, incorporations, trustee duties and trading. She also acts for a large number of not-for-profit clients in the third sector and is a recommended lawyer in the Legal 500 for charity law.

Gaynor Coley – Grant Committee

Gay lives in Wadebridge, is a Deputy Lieutenant for Cornwall and is passionate about education and doing good through business and social enterprise. She grew up in Wales, studied Economics at University College London, qualified as a teacher and then trained as a Chartered Accountant in the City, moving to KPMG in Cornwall in 1987.

She was appointed the first Director of Finance at the University of Plymouth in 1993, and in 1998 she became one of the Founding Directors at the Eden Project, a charitable trust, leading the funding during start up and delivering the £140m capital build. As Managing Director of the Eden Project for 13 years, she pioneered a programme that attracted over 15m visitors, won UK Visitor Destination of the Year for many years and contributed over £1.5bn to the local economy.

Gay went on to join the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew as Director of Public Programmes and most recently has chaired the Board at the Wave, the award-winning inland surfing destination in Bristol, which opened in 2019.

She has served on many Boards, including Cornwall College, the C&IOS LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) and the £10m impact investment fund Ignite, at Centrica plc. She is still actively involved in the investment market as a Non-Executive Director and Audit Chair on 4 listed Investment Companies.

Jenny Taylor – Grant Committee

Before moving to Cornwall in 2009 to complete her public health training, Jenny Taylor worked in NHS laboratories, the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre and for the Health Protection Agency. She registered in 2011 as a public health specialist and now works for the UK Health Security Agency as a Consultant in Health Protection where she specialises in zoonoses and emerging infections.

Dr Tamsyn Anderson – Grant Committee

Tamsyn became a Trustee in 2018, and was a GP Partner at Newquay Health Centre between 2003 and 2019. She was then charged with practice commissioning and became the Newquay Local Lead from 2013.

Tamsyn joined the NHS Kernow Governing Body for Newquay and North Cornwall, becoming its Medical Director for one year, and is now Chief Operating Officer for CPFT (Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust).

Her qualifications include MBBS (1996) and MRCGP (2001).

Tim Guy, Associate Trustee – Grant Committee; Awards and Conferences

Tim became a Trustee in 2008 having been involved in the founding of the Duchy Hospital. His skills in branding and design enabled him to maximise fundraising for the scheme.

He established Timothy Guy Design in 1969 and gained an international reputation in the corporate sector preparing financial and commercial graphic resolves for many international companies, including GE (USA), Ernst & Young (EY), and pharmaceutical/healthcare companies such as Glaxo Smith Kline, AstraZeneca and Amersham International.

He was a Trustee of the Corporate Action Trust, raising funds for those with severe life threatening spinal injuries, and has also been a Governor of Truro School.

Today his practice is over 50 years old. He is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Plymouth, responsible for Masters Programmes in Brand and Design, and looks after public affairs and communications for the Charity.

Helen Newton – Administrator

She relocated to Cornwall in 2009 and supports the Trustees in delivering the charity’s mission, ensuring good governance and compliance in everything we do.

Helen is the ‘go to’ person for all enquiries into the Charity.