DUCHESS OF NORTHUMBERLAND (PATRON)

The Duchess of Northumberland has served as Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland since 2009. She is the first woman to take up this role and first visited Forward Assist & Salute Her in December 2018. The Board of Trustees are delighted to have her take up the role of Patron.

SIR ALAN CAMPBELL MP (PATRON)

EMMA LEWELL-BUCK MP (PATRON)

Emma Lewell-Buck is the Labour Member of Parliament for South Shields. Before entering the House of Commons, Emma worked as a child protection social worker. She served as Councillor for the Primrose Ward in South Tyneside and as Lead Member for adult social care.

Emma was first elected as MP for South Shields in 2013. Emma was born in South Shields and is the first woman to represent the Constituency in Parliament. She has been a member of the House of Commons Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and the Work and Pensions Select Committees.  Emma has served in the Shadow Front Bench Team as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Home Secretary and to the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. She has been a Shadow Minister within the Communities and Local Government team and is currently the Shadow Minister for Children and Families in the Education Team.  Emma is a founder member of an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger. The group aims to raise awareness around the problem of hunger in this country, to try to understand the underlying causes and to explore ways of addressing the issues.

“Emma is delighted to be a Patron of Forward Assist, as she is passionate about ensuring that ex-military personnel are supported in all aspects of their civilian lives. In addition, she also has a particular interest in the issues faced by female veterans and maintains regular contact with members of Forward Assist in that respect.”

MARY GLINDON MP (PATRON)

Educated at the Sacred Heart Grammar School, in Newcastle, and Northumbria University, Mary has worked in the Public, Voluntary and Private Sectors. Prior to becoming an MP, in 2010, she worked as an Administrative Officer, in the CSA, at Longbenton. 

Mary was a North Tyneside councillor for 15 years, representing Battle Hill Ward, where she lives with her husband, Ray. A former Civic Mayor, she was North Tyneside’s Cabinet Member for Health and Well-Being and Older Person’s Champion. 

“I was delighted to be asked to be Patron of Forward Assist Veteran Support Charity and have seen first-hand the excellent work they do in supporting and providing guidance to former servicemen and women in my constituency and across the region. Forward Assist provide a very strong support network to all veterans I am immensely proud to be able to support the important work they do.”

LIZ TWIST (PATRON)

Widowed in 2000, Liz worked for UNISON’s Northern region for 12 years and was Regional Head of Health, speaking up on health policy issues and representing health workers. She also worked as a case worker in the office of Dave Anderson, the former MP for Blaydon. Liz believes that the NHS, schools and other public services must be funded properly and that our local area also depends on successful businesses employing local people in well-paid, secure jobs.

“I am absolutely delighted to be a Patron for Forward Assist and look forward to championing the cause of women veterans struggling to manage difficulties associated with trauma. I am also keen to support the charities work through my role as Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Suicide Prevention.”

DAVE ANDERSON (PATRON)

David Anderson (born 2 December 1953) is a British politician who served as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland from 2016 to 2017. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Blaydon from 2005 to 2017.

Dave Anderson was one of the very first supporters of Forward Assist and over the last 13 years has championed the cause of veterans and their families. We are delighted to have him on the team to advise and assist and support staff, volunteers and Trustees.

MARK GILMAN (PATRON)

Mark Gilman has spent over 40 years working in Substance Use Disorder research, policy and practice. He has a first degree in Organisation Theory and a MA in the study of Drugs, Crime and Social Deviance.

Mark was the Strategic Recovery Lead for Substance Misuse in Public Health England (PHE) where he initiated the work that PHE published as Facilitated Access to Mutual Aid (http://www.nta.nhs.uk/uploads/mutualaid-fama.pdf). Mark established Discovering Health Limited in 2015 and dissolved it in the summer of 2021. Mark has been an associate of Cormac Russell and is a long standing advocate for Asset Based Community Development. Mark was a founder member of The Expert Faculty on Commissioning for Substance Use Disorders. Mark is an ambassador for the Empower the Invisible Project because of his experience of substance use disorders (professionally and personally) and his fundamental belief that childhood trauma is the root of many (or most) of the most challenging forms of substance use disorder. Addressing trauma is the most urgent need in the substance use disorder treatment and recovery world. Mark has watched the emergence of Forward Assist with great interest. It is clear that the populations being helped by Forward Assist have been traumatized during service. It is also likely that many will have already had negative, traumatic experiences of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) even before enlisting. The combination of high ACE scores with traumatic experiences during service mean, that these veterans may need the most up to date, effective, evidence based treatment interventions to achieve a lasting recovery. With this in mind, Mark Gilman is an advocate for psychedelic psychotherapy. The evidence for psychedelic psychotherapy for trauma induced substance use disorders is gathering pace by the month. Mark Gilman would like to see the clients and patients of Forward Assist being able to access these new treatments and, as a patron would be advocating for this alongside all the other activities that would be expected of an engaged patron.

Trustees & Ambassadors

BRIAN HEGARTY (ACTING CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES)

I am delighted to be able to help Forward Assist in whatever way I can and have tried to do so since its inception in 2009. In my professional life as a Criminal Defence lawyer I encounter far too many former service personnel who end up in the Criminal Justice System.

All too often former service men and women find it difficult to manage the transition from serviceman to civilian. Many feel abandoned or isolated and can end up with serious personal problems and then involvement with the law. Forward Assist have genuine insight and experience of such difficulties and know how to best help those having problems. Those who struggle to adapt to life after the forces can be helped to overcome their difficulties and become valued and productive members of civilian society with a true sense of their own personal worth. I am a partner of David Gray solicitors and Head of the Crime Department. Over the years we have dealt with many serving and former service personnel and have a former member of the Royal Marines as one of our criminal solicitors.

GARETH EDWARDS (TRUSTEE)

I come from a family where my father served in the military for 16 years and all my grandparents and their parents on both sides of the family served during both world wars and I feel it is only right to give something back to the veteran community in the north east.

I am currently employed as a construction contracts manager working on a project with a value of 3 and a half million pounds. As part of my role I am responsible for ensuring the project demands are met. This includes the project being delivered on time, within budget, to a high standard of quality and ensuring health and safety is at the forefront of any build. I also manage a team of operatives which ranges between 40 and 100 people, ensuring they have the appropriate information, instructions, training and supervision to carry out their roles to the best of their ability which enables my organisation to meet client demands.

“I feel I will be of value to the Charity as my experience of planning projects and budgets will help stream line the Charities ongoing projects / future projects and enable the Charity to gain confidence from clients, funders and stakeholders to provide an ongoing commitment from funders who are satisfied with the performance and results generated by the Charity. I work in a results driven business where failure is not acceptable and everyone is judged on performance. I feel with my knowledge and experience I could help grow the Charity and improve systems already in place.”

I currently head up the Core Operations for the Highways Team at Capita Local Public Services who are working in partnership with North Tyneside Council.  I have been involved in Civil Engineering for twenty years in both Local Government & Private Sector.  Currently I am responsible for Highway Maintenance, Road Safety, Car Parking, Asset Management, Network Management & major improvement works worth millions of pounds. 

“With a number of former veterans employed within my current service area and also with former employers and consequently I have a real appreciation of the outstanding work that Forward Assist bring to veterans as they adapt to civilian life.”

STUART HONOR (TRUSTEE)

Stuart is Co- Founder and Director of Baseline Research and has over 20 years’ experience of working with ‘hard to reach’ groups, both as an ethnographic researcher and as a founder member of a range of community peer-led initiatives.

He developed his formal research knowledge and experience through a Masters in Addictions and has been lead and co-researcher in delivery of a range of studies across the UK on behalf of Public Health England, the Home Office, the Health Protection Agency and many other community led organisations. Stuart established the award-winning Basement Project in Halifax so has practical experience of developing successful recovery communities in many different areas. His work involving veterans and their lived experiences both during and after service has led to three pieces of ground-breaking research in the area.

 “I have enjoyed working closely with Forward Assist over the last two years and I remains a staunch activist for veteran rights in the UK. “