I am hugely proud to be the Chair of Validity Hungary and MDAC UK, an NGO that stands out internationally for its the work it does in advocating on behalf of people with mental disabilities.   It is my job to steer the direction of the Board and work with the team on the strategic vision,  and that has been an easy task with enthusiastic and dedicated trustees and staff who go above and beyond to ensure the voices of others are heard.

 In my other life, I am Health and Social Care Editor for Channel 4 News in the UK with a particular interest in mental health and learning disabilities and my involvement with Validity has undoubtedly informed my reporting.  At the same time, my work in communications has been useful when the team has had a success, which is often, and wants to highlight that work through the media and to our many partners and to our funders.

I joined as a trustee in 2017 at a time of change of MDAC (shortly after we rebranded and became Validity) and one of the first reports the staff produced was on Tophaz, a psychiatric institution in Hungary, in which children and adults were found to have been tortured and abused.  In 2024, the European Court of Human Rights found Hungary had failed to protect the right to life of residents.  That one report – among so many – represents to me the power of this organisation.