This week is Trustees Week, where we celebrate the work trustees do in keeping charities running! We can’t think of a better time to introduce you to our trustees, starting with our Founder and Director, Lydia Strachan.
Why did you become a Confident Conversations trustee?
I founded Confident Conversations to help other parents who are in hospital with ther child. I spent 16 months in hospital with my eldest daughter. Everything I learned came from friendly medical professionals and other parents but it was so piecemeal. I didn’t want any parent in hospital to have to rely on chance meetings. They deserve all the help they can get.
What have you done in your personal or work life that has helped you as a Confident Conversations trustee?
By training, I am a communications professional. I am also a diplomat. I treated hospital like a foreign posting – learning the language, the hierarchies, the culture, and using that to figure out how to get what I wanted and what my daughter needed. Once I had figured it out, I wanted to share what I learned, to communicate it to other parents.
What’s the most interesting thing about being a trustee?
Working with other charities and organisations who also support parents in hospital. There are so many amazing people out there who want to help. The tricky bit is making sure parents know about us!
What would you say to anyone considering becoming a trustee?
Do it! It’s not usually a big time commitment and its a great way to make the world a better place. You can share your lived experiences and learn from fellow trustees. This is particularly important if you come from a disadvantaged group. Charity boards in the UK are not as diverse as they should be – women, young people, people of colour, LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities and people from low socio-economic status groups are all under-represented on charity boards.
What’s the one thing you want people to know about Confident Conversations?
All of our information is created by parents with experience of being in hospital with their child. We put parents, and their experiences, at the heart if everything we do. We are #ByParentsForParents always.