Colin Pidgeon

I went to my first Sands meeting in Belfast a couple of weeks after Daisy was stillborn in February 2006.  The following October Cathy (my wife) and I trained as befrienders and we have been involved in Sands in Northern Ireland ever since.  Sands helped give a focus back to our lives at that brutal time - as we tried to adjust to a world that will forever have a Daisy-shaped hole in it.

Trusteeship is a new departure for me.  At a personal level, the biggest challenge will be keeping the paperwork organised (I’ve always been a ‘scribbled notes on a scrap of paper shoved in a drawer’ kind of guy) so that I can find the things I need to fulfill the role properly.  Sands is a rapidly evolving and expanding organisation.  It’s inevitable that when what was once (quite recently, even) quite a small charity starts to grow (and Sands is now going global) that there will be a number of challenges to be faced in terms of the administration and running of the organisation.  In particular, I want to ensure that Sands embraces the many new opportunities (like ISA, the research agenda, working with governments and so on) but we must never lose our focus on the core aspect of supporting those who need us.