Trustees

Martin Read (Chairman)

Martin has been a Trustee of the Fountain Centre since 2008. He has a strong belief in the contribution that Complementary and Holistic therapies can have in assisting in recovery from cancer, having suffered from Hodgkins Disese during the 1990s. Having served with the Royal Marines, Martin established and ran his own international business in the provision of specialist security. A strong family man, he  lives in Milford with his wife Suzanne .  His three children have now flown the nest.

David Bowen

David has been a trustee of the Fountain Centre since 2009.  He is a Chartered Accountant with over twenty years’ experience with one of the ‘Big Four’ global accounting firms.  He uses this experience to help ensure that the Fountain Centre’s finance and governance arrangements remain appropriate.  Since being introduced to the work of the Centre, David has been particularly impressed by the commitment shown by its staff and supporters to improve the life of cancer patients.  David lives in Godalming with his wife, twin sons and a chocolate labrador called Barney.

Trevor Mills FCA

Trevor has been Treasurer of the Fountain Centre since July 2009. He  is a Chartered Accountant and since 2005 has worked in private practice as a sole trader. Before that he held various financial positions in a wide variety of businesses both in the UK and abroad, notably from 1995 – 2005 in private hospitals.  He lives with his wife in Pulborough and has three adult children.

Mark Nelson

Mark joined the Fountain Centre as a Trustee in 2009. With a career in brand marketing and communication, he has worked across a variety of well-known household brands, and continues today as an independent communication consultant. As a patient at St Luke’s himself, he was initially unaware of the Fountain Centre and believes it would have been a great help for him and his family at that time.  So he is particularly focused on using his business experience to help develop and improve the communication and awareness of the Fountain Centre.

Neill Parsons

Neill joined the Fountain Centre as a Trustee in 2009.  He has had a long and varied career in a number of large corporate companies.  He is now a business consultant with his own practice, focused on operations and project management.  He is interested in supporting a number of initiatives to help those dealing with cancer in their lives.  Neill is married with two nearly grown-up and lives in Haslemere.

Richard Peters

Richard has been a Trustee and Secretary of the Fountain Centre since 2009. He has an engineering degree from Cambridge University. Subsequently, he had a number of careers, but was with a major mining company for thirty years. Though latterly based in London, he did spend several years living and working abroad, mainly in Africa. He and his wife Jenny live near Milford, their three grown up children now live independently.

Dr Richard Shaffer

Richard is a consultant oncologist at St Luke’s Cancer Centre, treating patients with brain, skin and urological tumours.  He came to the Royal Surrey County Hospital following an 18-month clinical fellowship at British Columbia Cancer Centre in Vancouver.  One of the main reasons behind Richard taking on the Trustee role is to provide a clinical perspective as the Fountain Centre develops : “I feel it’s important that Oncology and the Fountain Centre work in harmony and maintain excellent communications.  Patients with the types of cancers I treat, brain tumours especially, need a lot of extra support.  Counselling and relaxation therapies can play an extremely important part in a patient’s recovery.”

Monica Simpson

Monica is a Founder Trustee who has been involved with the Fountain Centre from the start.  After the death of her husband, Peter Rowland, from cancer in 1994, she and a dedicated committee of ten raised £300,000 in two years to make the dream of a holistic centre within an NHS hospital a reality.  The Charity became ‘official’ in 2000 and since then Monica, formerly a PE teacher and air stewardess, has dedicated all her spare time to ensuring the Fountain Centre goes from strength to strength.

Richard Southwell

Richard joined the Board of Trustees in 2009.  His background and expertise is legal, having practised for 30 years as a barrister specialising in personal injuries, industrial disease and related claims & professional negligence. In  2000 he was appointed a Circuit Judge and sits at Kingston Crown Court presiding over criminal cases of all kinds. However, his interest in the Fountain Centre is not purely legal, but clinical and humanitarian. He says: “I increasingly admire and value the work it does, and the service it provides to all those who need it.”

John Wilkinson

John joined the Board of Trustees in 2008, after a long and distinguished career in marketing and business.  He spent 28 years in the commercial sector before moving to the World Wildlife Fund UK, where he was Marketing Director for 9 years.  Subsequently he led consultancy projects for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Guide Dogs for the Blind and the Arthritis Research Campaign.  John has a particular affinity to the Fountain Centre as his first wife, Elisabeth, died of cancer in 1991.  He has three grown-up sons and acquired three step-daughters when he remarried.