Who are we?

Jamie’s Fund is a UK Registered Charity and is administered by a Board of Trustees. This page gives a brief pen sketch of the Trustees.

Prof Ewan Wilkinson

Prof Ewan Wilkinson

Chief Executive

Ewan grew up in Kenya and worked in Malawi for 6 years. While in Malawi he realised there was much more to health than giving out tablets and so trained in public health medicine. He worked in Liverpool for 14 years trying to enhance the health of its population, and has maintained his interested in improving health in low and middle income countries.

He is now visiting professor of global public health at the University of Chester and Chief Executive of Jamie’s Fund.

Avril & Jim Devaney

Avril & Jim Devaney

Trustees
Avril and Jim are Jamie’s parents. Avril, a mental health nurse of 35 years was latterly Director of Nursing at Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust for seventeen years. She was instrumental in establishing the original connection with Kisiizi Hospital in 2010 and throughout her nursing career has been committed to helping people live full lives and reducing the impact of stigma & health and social inequalities. She continues with these interests after taking early retirement from the NHS to look after their two adopted children in 2019. Avril was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s 2016 New Years Honours for services to mental health nursing.
Jim is a self employed plumber and boiler engineer who goes out of his way to help others. He has steadfastly supported Avril to challenge stigma and inequalities through her work and has raised funds towards theses aims both before and after Jamie’s Fund was established. He has done this by running marathons and half marathons and cycling from Lands End to John O’Groats (not once but twice!) Jim also cycled from Entebbe to Kisiizi Hospital ( with Ewan) in 2011. Jim continues to support Jamie’s Fund through fundraising activities and is currently planning events to mark the 10th anniversary of Jamie’s passing
John Taylor

John Taylor

Treasurer

Prior to retirement I spent 20 years in the Finance and Charitable Funds departments of an NHS Trust delivering mental health services. It was an honour for me to be invited to become a Trustee and Treasurer of the charity and I have been with Jamie’s Fund since the start, nearly 10 years now.

I have learnt much about the stigma and challenges facing the mentally ill in African countries, having visited several of the Ugandan hospitals which Jamie’s Fund supports and having met with those locally responsible for running these hospitals and delivering mental health services.

As a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, I use my accounting expertise to support the charity’s objectives and to ensure compliance with Charity Commission and Revenue requirements (including gift aid). I maintain our donation pages with Virgin Money Giving and have participated in fund raising. I am always pleased to accept donations directly or indirectly, so if you have money to donate, please don’t hesitate to do so or get in touch with me through the Contact page.

Prof Maureen Wilkinson

Prof Maureen Wilkinson

Advisor

Maureen is a consultant psychiatrist in Adult Mental Health, with a special interest in maternal mental health. Before retiring from the NHS she was also Associate Medical Director and then finally the Lead for Personal, Team and Organisational Development in Cheshire & Wirral NHS Trust.

Maureen and husband Ewan lived in Malawi for 6 years, where she was the Senior Government Psychiatrist (then the only post for a psychiatrist in the country), developing community mental health services which resulted in a surprisingly swift halving of the population of the national mental hospital.

In the great majority of low resource countries there is serious stigma, rejection, and often cruel or degrading treatment meted out to people with mental illness and epilepsy, due mainly to traditional and spiritual beliefs about causes and effects of the illness. Maureen remains committed to training and enabling all health staff to understand mental illness, to provide a loving welcome and appropriate treatment, and to develop a vision for effective community care.

Maureen is Visiting Professor of International Mental Health at the University of Chester. She teaches global mental health on many international diploma and masters’ courses in tropical medicine and nursing.

Linda Shuttleworth

Linda Shuttleworth

Trustee

Linda Shuttleworth

I am a recently retired Clinical Psychologist; all my working life has been within local NHS adult mental health services. I am interested in psychological approaches to understanding and coping with psychosis and bipolar mood problems, as well as other mental distress such as anxiety and depression. In the late 1970s, I lived and worked in rural western Kenya for 2 years as a VSO science teacher. Since then, I have always had a place in my heart for East Africa, and an interest in international development.

I was part of the first visit to explore how we might work in partnership with Kisiizi Hospital in 2010. I have since been back to Uganda many times. It has been a privilege to get to know the staff of health facilities across Uganda. Not only those with whom we were already working, but also the growing number keen to develop their mental health services.

I am an active member of the small Operational Group of Trustees, working behind the scenes at home to plan and support the training and service development we are facilitating in Uganda.

Hugh Burgess

Hugh Burgess

Chair

Hugh is an ordained Anglican Priest and it was in this capacity that Hugh first came to know Jamie and his family. Following Jamie’s untimely death, Hugh became involved as a Trustee with Jamie’s Fund.  Prior to ordination Hugh had worked for more than 35 years at a senior level in a variety of industries, including transport and logistics and latterly in IT Consultancy.  He brings both his business background and more recent pastoral experience to the work of Jamie’s Fund.

Jacqui Marsland

Jacqui Marsland

Trustee

Jacqui Marsland is a practising solicitor and partner in a Solicitors Practice in Wrexham, Wales.

She gained a law degree and then went on to complete the Legal Practice Course at Chester Law School.

She qualified as a solicitor in 1998 and has been working in Wrexham for the last ten years. Whilst she specialises in Family Law she also deals with conveyancing and wills.

Jacqui met Jamie’s parents through their mutual love of scuba diving and they have been firm friends since. Jacqui was honoured to be asked to become a Trustee of the charity. Jacqui was unware of the treatment of mental health patients in Uganda until she took up the post and she is now committed to helping the charity raise funds to develop better facilities to ensure a better future in the country.

Jacqui is an active participant in fund raising events, completing the abseil at the launch, running stalls and organising the celebration evening after her partner David completed the Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle.

Our Aim

To help people whose lives are affected by mental health conditions in Uganda.