Trustees & Execs

At the end of a long career in Engineering, IT, Education and Health, I am devoting time to my family, friends and a deserving charity, Spotlight YOPD.

CEO of Spotlight YOPD & Co-Chair of YOPD Leadership Group at the World Parkinson’s Congress. Gaynor Edwards is CEO of Spotlight YOPD, a charity representing those diagnosed with Parkinson’s under the age of 50. She founded the charity in January 2016, just a little over three years after her own diagnosis at the age of 42.

Positivity Activist. Proud recipient of the BNA's Public Engagement of Neuroscience Award 2020, Co-Founder and Frontman of Parkylife Finalist at the National Diversity Awards 2020- Positive Role Model ( Disability ).

Trustee for SpotlightYOPD. PhD Student, Technician and Researcher for the Division of Psychology at Nottingham Trent University. Main area of work focuses on experimental design using Unity, with current work focussing on developing Virtual Reality Exposure Therapies (VRET). PhD contains psychometric, neurological, and behavioural examinations of Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory.

Trustee at SpotlightYOPD. Qualified Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner and trainee Cognitive Behavioural Therapist. Beth has trained in adapting therapy for those with long term conditions and aims to develop materials to make therapy more accessible for sufferers of long term conditions, such as YOPD.

Financial & Corporate Services leader / Project Manager
Specialties:
- Change Management including:
- Mergers and Acquisitions and post merger integration
- System implementation including Financial Systems, ERP, CRM and Treasury.
- Functional leadership including IT and Facilities, large,small and disbursed international teams.
- Charity Tax, Governance, Risk Management and Strategy

Working with clients and RARE communities to deliver better patient outcomes through bespoke education, support plus access and evidence generation. Every conversation I have in RARE takes my understanding that little bit further forward and I bring confidence and humility in helping you overcome your challenges to collectively make a difference. Always open to connecting with patient groups in the rare disease community to support their activities and inform our solutions.

Researcher Development Administrator at The University of Manchester and Trustee at Spotlight YOPD.

Sally joined Spotlight YOPD in Spring 2020 and is Deputy Chair for the charity. Sally is a registered nurse. Having trained in London she worked clinically for 21 years in critical care before moving into senior management, including four years as a Chief Nurse. She is passionate about patient safety and person-centred compassionate quality care.

Sally has retired from fulltime nursing after over 40 years in the profession. She is an avid Charlton Athletic FC season ticket supporter, loves cycling, trying to learn the drums and ukulele as well as playing a good game of darts. Sally is delighted to be part of this valuable organisation to make a difference.