Trustees – Duchy Health Charity

President, Michael Galsworthy CVO CBE DL (front left), Chair, Dr Barbara Vann DL (centre) and Chair of Grant Committee, Sally-Jane Coode MBE DL (right) with some of the Trustees at Truro College during a recent AGM.

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.

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

Board members

Mr M Williams – Treasurer and Company Secretary
Dr B Vann DL (Chair)
Mrs C O’Brien
Mrs S-J Coode MBE DL
Mrs M Vyvyan
Mr T J Guy
Mr G Murdoch
Mrs A Hambly-Staite
Mr J Croggon
Dr J Evers
Mrs Katy Hutchinson
Dr Tamsyn Anderson

The Board has two subcommittees:

The Finance Committee

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

The Grant Committee

(Chair: Mrs 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.

The charity’s annual accounts are audited by a local firm of accountants, and available to view at the Companies House and Charity Commission websites.

Investment policy

This is monitored by the Finance Committee, many of whose members are experienced in business. Our annual accounts are audited by a local firm of accountants and comply with The Statement of Recommended Accounting Practice for Charities.

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 – 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.

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.

Tim Guy – Grant Committee

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.

Mary Vyvyan – Grant Committee

Mary became a Trustee in 2008. She previously trained as a speech therapist at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London and moved with her family to Cornwall, 30 years ago.

Mary worked firstly as a publicity officer for the Cornwall Branch of the British Red Cross and then became a Committee Member, to raise funds to build the Mermaid Centre at Treliske. This is a vital ‘one-stop’ breast care unit at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust, Treliske.

Graham Murdoch – Finance Committee

Graham became a Trustee in 2013. He has been a partner at Stephens Scown, Solicitors, Truro, for over 30 years.

Graham was born in Cornwall and attended Truro School. He gained his first law degree (LLB) from the University of East Anglia and then his Masters Degree (UM) from the University of Cambridge.

Having obtained his solicitors ‘Finals’ at The Guildford Branch of the College of Law, he took a two-year training contract for a national firm in Plymouth before qualifying as a Notary Public.

He is married to a GP who practices at a surgery on the North Coast of Cornwall.

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.

Aldyth Hambly-Staite – Grant Committee

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.

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.

Dr John Evers – Grant Committee

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.

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).

Helen Newton – Administrator

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