Our team
Find out more about our brilliant team of Staff, Trustees and Patrons.
Staff
Chris Wilkins MBE
Co-Founder and CEO – Sporting Memories
What do you do at Sporting Memories? Making sure that Sporting Memories continues to benefit our older community wherever they are.
Favourite Memory: At home with the kids one memorable Saturday morning cheering Johnny Wilkinson’s drop-kick secure the 2002 Rugby World Cup for England. The kids were young then and being born and bred in Scotland, they probably won’t be cheering as much if the same happens in 2023!
Kelly Hart
Director of Impact and Fundraising
What do you do at Sporting Memories? My core role is to get money into the organisation and help to show the impact, so we can continue to deliver all the fantastic work we do.
Favourite sporting memory: Nottingham Forest in the 80/90’s under Brian Clough and visiting the old Wembley 6 times in five years in cup competitions.
Brian Sloan
Development Director
What do you do at Sporting Memories? My role is to develop a partnership approach to support the continued growth in Scotland allowing older people to stay connected with their love for sport.
Favourite sporting memory: Scotland winning the 1990 Grand Slam against England at Murrayfield. I was there and when the team slowly walked out onto the pitch at the start I have never heard noise like it at any sporting event.
Donna Mackey
Partnerships Manager
What do you at Sporting Memories? Build relationships with local and national organisations to expand the Sporting Memories club network across Scotland.
Favourite Sporting Memory: Watching Hearts win their first Scottish Cup in 42 years in 1998, beating Rangers 2-1. What a day!
Tom Taylor
Communications Manager
What do you do at Sporting Memories? I help to tell the story of our wonderful organisation through our website, social media channels and getting our name and clubs in the press!
Favourite sporting memory: Watching Lee Steele score a 95th minute winner in the final game of the season to get Leyton Orient promoted in 2006!
David Gallagher
Training Officer
What do you do at Sporting Memories? I am involved in delivering our training sessions for our volunteers and partners who run our clubs across the country. I also oversee some of our virtual clubs.
Favourite sporting memory – Singing Sunshine on Leith at Hampden Park after seeing David Gray score a 92nd minute winner against Rangers to win Hibs’ first Scottish Cup in 114 years.
Rob Baker
Project Coordinator (Wales)
What do you do at Sporting Memories? co-ordinate and oversee clubs across Wales
Favourite sporting memory – Crystal Palace v Liverpool - FA Cup semi final 1990 at Villa Park.
Graham Cross
Administration Officer
What do you do at Sporting Memories? I coordinate & oversee clubs in East Lothian as well as supporting the wider team across a range of administrative areas such as HR.
Favourite sporting memory: Being 7, standing in the Leazes End in the rain at St James Park as Malcolm ‘Supermac’ Macdonald scored a hat trick on his debut for Newcastle United against Liverpool. That was it.
Janet Torley
Communications Officer
What do you do at Sporting Memories? Keep the world informed of all the great work Sporting Memories does
Favourite sporting memory – Listening to the radio in the North Sea to Andy Murray winning Wimbledon – magic!
Liz Price
Volunteer Coordinator (Scotland)
What do you do at Sporting Memories? I’m responsible for recriting volunteers and supporting them through their Volunteer Journey.
Favourite sporting memory – Stunning 1980 Wimbledon match - Borg vs McEnroe five setter (Borg won). Atmosphere on Centre Court electric!
Jim Purvis
Community Club Co-ordinator
What do you do at Sporting Memories? Support and help to recruit volunteers and the running of Sporting Memories Clubs in the West of Scotland while also seeking to set up and organise new clubs at every opportunity.
Favourite sporting memory: Andy Irvine’s last minute touchline penalty goal which earned Scotland a dramatic 16-14 Calcutta Cup win at Murrayfield in February 1974 (I was only a boy!).
Gary Waddell
Community Club Co-ordinator
What do you do at Sporting Memories? Set up and support the running of Sporting Memories Clubs
Favourite sporting memory: Raith Rovers winning the Scottish League Cup in 1994 beating Glasgow Celtic on penalties having drawn 2-2 after extra time.
Yvonne Friel
Community Club Co-ordinator
What do you do at Sporting Memories? I oversee the weekly running of our Sporting Memories Clubs/Groups in the west of Scotland, while supporting our wonderful volunteers and sessional staff, and not to forget offering support to our fantastic members and their carers. I am always on the lookout for opportunities to get new Sporting Memories clubs/groups off the ground while recruiting new volunteers.
Favourite sporting memory: My 1st and last Celtic v Rangers 1992 Scottish cup semi final at Hampden Park - final score: Celtic 0 Rangers 1
Becky Wilkins
Editor of the Sporting Pink
What do you do at Sporting Memories? Help create all the wonderful editorial Sporting Pinks content for our subscribers to enjoy!
Favourite sporting memory: Playing netball in the rain at lunchtime as a bit of welcome relief from a stressful job!
Chris Jameson
Sporting Pink Researcher
Kayleigh Catford
Development Manager
What do you do at Sporting Memories? Develop our social licence model so we can increase and enhance the number of SM clubs we have in England and Wales
Favourite sporting memory: Watching the finish of the first Stage of the Tour de France in Harrogate, the gasp followed by silence when Mark Cavendish crashed with just a few hundred yards to go was epic!
John Whitelaw
Session Worker (Scotland)
What do you do at Sporting Memories? I run two groups in East Kilbride, plan the itineries and lead the meetings
Favourite sporting memory: Jim Holton’s winning header for Scotland v Czechoslovakia in 1973. I was there, It inspired me to go abroad to see Scotland play all three games at the 1974 World Cup in West Germany .
Rob Risien
Session Worker and Volunteer (Scotland)
What do you do at Sporting Memories? Spread the word about our groups and help our members make new friends through sport.
Favourite sporting memory: Hampden Park May 2008, Scottish Cup Final Queen of the South v Rangers. Did I ever think I’d witness such a day !!
Tom Mooney
Session Worker (Scotland)
Non-Executive Directors
Darshan Sanghrajka
Non-Executive Director, England
Alastair Bruce
Non-Executive Director, Scotland
Trustees – England
Rory McCormick
Trustee and Chair of the Board
Gareth Heard
Trustee
Richard Armstrong
Trustee
Waseem Khan
Trustee
Angie Mills-Curtis
Trustee
Trustees – Scotland
Rory McCormick
Trustee and Chair of the Board
Gary Scott
Trustee
Favourite sporting memory: Cheering Team Scotland into the stadium at the Opening Ceremony of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Keith Anderson
Trustee
Favourite sporting memory: Scotland’s Grand Slam in 1984, after a friend and I had said two months earlier it will never happen in our lifetime, and we did it again in 1990!
Simon Scott
Trustee
Favourite sporting memory: Scotland winning the 1990 Grand Slam against England at Murrayfield.
Richard Armstrong
Trustee
Maurice Donohue
Trustee
Favourite sporting memory: back to 1979, when I saw Sir Jackie Stewart drive his Tyrrell Ford F1 car around the Ingliston Race Circuit in Edinburgh. Apart from being a sporting icon , Sir Jackie Stewart, along with his Foundation - Race Against Dementia, hopes to bring down the chequered flag on fight surrounding Dementia.
Patrons
Adrian Bevington
Adrian is one of football’s most experience senior executive having held various leadership positions in the industry
Dr Luther Blissett OBE DL
Luther is a former professional footballer and manager who played for the England national team in the 1980s
Mark Blundell
Mark is a British racing driver with a long career in F1 and currently driving in The Touring Car Championships
Professor Alistair Burns CBE
Alistair is Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at The University of Manchester
Terry Butcher
Terry is an English football manager and former player. who captained the England national team winning 77 caps in a ten-year international career that featured three Fifa World Cups
Stephen Halkett
Stephen is a Physics teacher as well as stand-up comic and likes to run.
Paul Hawksbee
Paul is a British sports radio presenter and comedy writer. He has presented the Hawksbee and Jacobs show alongside ndy Jacobs on TalkSPORT since the station’s inception in 2000.
Alastair Hignell CBE
Alastair is an English former rugby union international, first–class cricketer, and broadcaster.
Guy Mowbray
Guy is an English football commentator, who primarily appears on the BBC and BT Sport
Yvonne Murray MBE
Yvonne is an Olympic and World Gold winning long and middle distance runner
Paul O’Neill
Paul is a Sports presenter with ITV4 now after a successful British Touring Cars career
Bernie Slaven
Bernie is a former professional football striker scoring 223 goals over an 18 year career
Lachie Stewart
Lachie is a former medal winning distance runner and an inductee in the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.
Professor Claire Surr
Claire is a Professor of Dementia Studies and Director of the Centre for Dementia Research
Ambassadors
Rob Foreman
Rob is an Ambassador having previously worked for Sporting Memories
Andy Read
Andy is an Ambassador for Sporting Memories having started and led our Club in Sudbury
Malcolm Hall
Malcolm is an Ambassador for Sporting Memories having previously been a Board Members at Sporting Memories Network CIC
Trevor Rollinson
Trevor has been involved with Sporting Memories for several years, having previously facilitated two of our Clubs in Salford
Sandy Mitchell
Sandy previously helped establish Sporting Memories at Lancashire Cricket Foundation in his role as Head of Heritage and Community Wellbeing
Sue Eltringham
Sue is a facilitator of our Sporting Memories Club in Marden Kent and a proactive support of our work in the county and South East.
In this section
Volunteers
We’re always on the lookout for volunteers to help run our clubs all across England, Scotland and Wales – find out more here.
Find a club
Want to know where your nearest Sporting Memories club is? View our Club Finder page here.