Our Patrons
Rebecca Abrams
Rebecca was born in Cambridge, England and has lived since in Durham, Elland, Bristol, Chicago, Geneva and Oxford. She is the author of seven published works of fiction and non-fiction and the editor of two anthologies of writing.
Her first book When Parents Die: Learning to Live with the Loss of a Parent, was published in 1991 and has been continually in print ever since. Now in a fully updated 3rd edition, When Parents Die was shortlisted for a MIND Award and is an established classic in its field.
She is also the author of the best-seller, Three Shoes One Sock and No Hairbrush: Everything you need to know about having a second child; Woman in a Man’s World: Pioneering career women of the 20th century, and The Playful Self: Why women need play in their lives.
A former columnist on the Daily Telegraph and radio producer for the BBC, Rebecca is a regular literary critic for the Financial Times. She has contributed to the national press for over 30 years as a feature writer, book critic and commissioning editor, and is the recipient of an Amnesty International Press Award. Her articles have appeared in the Financial Times, Guardian, Vogue, New Statesman, Sunday Times, Daily Mail, and Independent.
Sir Michael Morpurgo OBE
Michael Morpurgo is the author of many books for children, five of which have been made into films. He also writes his own screenplays and libretti for opera.
Born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 1943, he was evacuated to Cumberland during the last years of the war, then returned to London. After a brief and unsuccessful spell in the army, he took up teaching and started to write. He left teaching after ten years in order to set up 'Farms for City Children' with his wife. They have three farms in Devon, Wales and Gloucestershire, open to inner city school children who come to stay and work with the animals. In 1999 this work was publicly recognised when he and his wife were awarded an MBE for services to youth. He is also a father and grandfather, so children have always played a large part in his life.
In 2003 Michael Morpurgo became the third Children's Laureat. He was awarded an OBE in 2006 for services to literature. His recent publications include Half a Man(2014), An Eagle in the Snow (2016), and Flamingo Boy (2018).
Dame Sarah Storey OBE
Among the most decorated athletes in British sporting history, Dame Sarah Storey competed as a swimmer at four Paralympic Games before switching to cycling in 2005, and is now the owner of 14 Paralympic gold medals.
Since making the career move, Sarah added to her swimming golds with a further nine cycling titles at the Paralympics of 2008, 2012 and 2016, bettering the record of Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and Dave Roberts among modern British para-athletes who won 11 golds.
Now targeting selection for what would be her eighth Paralympic Games, Sarah stands on the brink of British history, needing two further golds to match Mike Kenny's British Paralympic record of 16.
Her success at world championships is also astonishing - at the 2020 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships - the 20th of her career - Storey took her total across both sports up to 38 world titles and 60 medals overall.
She has achieved all this whilst raising her family, committing to being a full time athlete and full time mum. Sarah’s commitment to better outcomes for all children is as inspiring as her incredible athletic career.
Sir John Timpson
Sir John Timpson was educated at Oundle and Nottingham University.
The Timpson family business, originally founded by Sir John’s great grandfather in the 1860’s, now has over 2000 branches nationwide, including the Max Spielmann, Johnsons the Cleaners and Snappy Snaps brands. The Group has a turnover of over £300m and profits of over £20m. Timpson is recognised for its creative approach to employee engagement and innovative work helping ex-offenders – it is the UK’s most active employer of people from prison.
Sir John was married to his wife Alex for 47 years before she sadly passed away in 2016. The couple had five children, but were also foster carers for 31 years, during which time they fostered 90 children.
Sir John has published several picture books to help communicate the difficulties some children and young people experience when they experience early trauma or attachment trauma. These books are accessible, simple and moving. He also has a weekly column in the Daily Telegraph.
In 2004 Sir John was awarded the CBE in the Birthday Honours List for Services to the Retail Sector, and in 2017 he was awarded a knighthood for Services to Business and Fostering.
Professor Mark Tomlinson
Professor Mark Tomlinson is the Co-Director of the Institute for Life Course Health Research at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa. He is also Professor of Maternal and Child Health in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queens University, Belfast, UK. He is a Clinical Psychologist by profession but now engaged full-time in research.
His scholarly work has primarily focussed on how to improve early childhood development, child and adolescent mental health, and maternal mental health. Together with a number of colleagues he has developed and tested a number of community-based interventions to improve maternal and child health, and child and adolescent health across the life course. Of late, he has become particularly interested in how to better advocate for children at the policy level and how to put the interests of children at the centre of all policy making.
He was elected as a member of the Academy of Science in South Africa in 2017. He has published over 360 papers in peer-reviewed journals, edited four books and published numerous chapters.
