who are our heads of department & trustees

Mr Richard Diggory - Chairman
Joined in 2007

Richard retired from a 37-year career in the financial services sector, the majority of it at the Bank of England. Richard has known Burrswood for over 20 years and was initially impressed by the combination of medical skills and spiritual gifts that come together in Burrswood’s ministry. In 2007 he experienced that ministry during his sister’s final illness. He and his family have lived in Kent for 25 years

Mr Charles Broadie - Deputy Chairman
Joined in 2004

Charles is a solicitor (recently retired from Cripps Harries Hall). He is a part time tribunal judge and has experience of working in Strasbourg as a member of the Secretariat of the European Commission of Human Rights, where he put to good use his considerable gift for foreign languages. He lives in Kent, is a governor of a local school and has four grown up children.

Anthony Bennett
Joined in 2010

Anthony spent a good deal of his working life in the Retail Motor Trade in south London and Kent  but decided in the early 90’s to have a change in direction and to concentrate on his principal business interest of property investment, and now has his office in Tunbridge Wells.  Over the years he has been involved in several Church rebuilding or reordering schemes which have needed successful financial appeals. 

He is married to Sian, an artist, and they now live primarily in Tunbridge Wells but escape when they can to the Isle of Wight to pursue their love of sailing.  They have moved around quite a bit in both London and Kent and as a consequence have connections with many churches and are now involved at Christ Church, Tunbridge Wells. Anthony has three grown up children, now all out of university and engaged in different careers in London, Dorset and Sevenoaks. Anthony and Sian have had an involvement with Burrswood for several years.

Mrs Phyllida de Salis DL
Joined in 2008

Phyllida worked for 19 years as a Solicitor with Cripps Harries Hall, 17 of those as a partner in Heathfield and Tunbridge Wells. Since retiring her focus has been towards health and social care for all ages. She believes strongly in the benefits of holistic treatment for both physical and mental problems. For 6 years she was Chairman of St John Ambulance Sussex and is now a Trustee of the Priory of St John. She has been a non-executive director of East Sussex Hospitals Trust since their merger in 2002, and was a Trustee of Carers First in West Kent. Phyllida is an Associate Mental Health Act Manager with both the Sussex Partnership NHS Trust and The Priory. She has been married for 45 years, has two children and four grandchildren.

Rev Tim Mills
Joined in 2005

Following ordination and curacy at St Stephen's Church in Chislehurst Tim became Vicar at St Mary's, Ticehurst in 2008.  Tim was Fundraising Manager at Burrswood from 1996-2001 instigating the capital appeal for £3m for the new hospital wing.  Prior to this he was Appeals Manager with Imperial Cancer Research and worked in fundraising for World Vision UK.  Tim is married with 3 children.

Mrs Deborah Richards
Joined in 2008

Deborah has worked in Human Resource Development internationally and in the UK, both in the private and public sector.  She believes Burrswood is a wonderful place of peace, restoration and healing for the whole person. Her husband is a Director of Macmillan Cancer Support for London, Anglia and the South East and they live in West London

Robin Hepburn
Joined in 2009

Robin started his career in commercial banking.  He is founder and managing director of Waughton, an independent financial and corporate communications consultancy based in the City of London and acts as board level advisor to a wide range of organisations, predominantly in the financial services sector. His work involves advising on an array of communication and marketing issues. Prior to founding Waughton in 2002, he was CEO of one of the UK's largest financial communications agencies. Robin is married with 5 children.

Miss Lynette Stone CBE
Joined in 2013

Lynette worked in healthcare for 40 years having qualified as a nurse and midwife in Australia before coming to the UK. She held many senior clinical and managerial posts in the NHS and was Head of Nursing for Specialist Medicine at Guys & St Thomas' NHS Trust when she retired. Her special interest was in dermatology nursing and she promoted the specialty both nationally and internationally, co-founding the British Dermatological Nursing Group in 1989.

Since retirement Lynette has been involved in various charitable organisations in the health sector. She is a member of the court of both the Needlemakers Company and Parish Clerks Company and a churchwarden at St James Garlickhythe in the City of London.

Dr Andrew Taylor
Joined in 2013

Andrew is a recently retired doctor having spent 27 years in General Practice. He studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital as did Gareth Tuckwell and Paul Worthley. Through his work as a GP he has known many who have benefited from the ministry of Burrswood.

Prior to settling in Tunbridge Wells he and his family served overseas with Africa Inland Mission for three years in a rural hospital in Kenya. Andrew maintains his link with Africa through serving as a trustee of Family Impact which seeks to support and encourage family life  in Africa amongst communities through a variety of Christian based programmes

Andrew is widowed  with three grown up children.

Executive Team

John Ashelford - Chief Executive

Rev Christine Garrard – Senior Chaplain

Christine trained as a speech therapist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, qualifying in 1975.  She worked as an NHS speech therapist until 1990 with a gap to bring up her daughter, during which she gained a BA degree in psychology.  She trained for the priesthood on the East Anglican ministerial training course.

After her ordination in 1990, she was engaged in full-time ministry as a parish priest in Suffolk, and from 2002 until 2008 as a Diocesan Director of Ordinands.  She has always seen God’s healing purposes for his people and his world as central to the Christian Gospel, and was overjoyed to be invited to the post of Senior Chaplain of Burrswood from May 2008. She loves the joys and challenges of working with the multidisciplinary team, offering very different skills with the sole purpose of ministering God’s healing love to his broken people.

To relax she enjoys her family, and she also loves bird watching, music, complicated knitting, and visiting the remoter islands of Britain with friends.

 Suzanne Owen – Director of Nursing

Suzanne Owen qualified as a nurse in 1984, having done a joint RN/BSc (Hons) course at Southbank University and Westminster Hospital in London.  After qualifying she worked for some years in medical and surgical wards in London hospitals, and then undertook a specialist nursing course in cardiothoracic nursing at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London. She was a senior ward sister at St George’s Hospital (London) for three years in cardiothoracic surgery.  From 1992 until 2002 she worked as a nurse lecturer and programme leader for the nursing studies degree course at King’s College London, retaining strong clinical links by working with and assessing students in the clinical areas.  During this time she undertook a Master’s degree in nursing and became a qualified nurse teacher.

Suzanne became Matron at Burrswood in September 2002, and worked in that role for six years before becoming Clinical Services Director and was appointed Director of Patient and Guest Services in 2010.  She is also Burrswood’s Registered Manager for the Care Quality Commission, managing the inspection process and other regulatory issues.

Suzanne loves reading and walking (but not at the same time), and enjoys Pilates.
 

James Archer - Finance Director

James Archer came to Burrswood in 2012.  A Chartered Accountant with a background in working with a variety of medium-sized businesses, he was previously Director of Support Services at Church Army and has also been a church treasurer.  As well as finance, his responsibilities include IT, oversight of all Burrswood’s trading activities and being Company Secretary.  He lives on site.

Carolyn Bruce – Director of Human Resources

Carolyn joined Burrswood in April 2008. Her previous experience includes Human Resources work in both the private and public sectors with a variety of organisations, including Kimberly-Clark and Kent Training and Enterprise Council.  She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and has an MA in Employment Strategy.  

Heads of Department

Dr Paul Worthley – Senior Physician

Paul trained at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, where he qualified in 1976.  He spent three years at the Worcester Royal Infirmary and then on to General Practice training in Hackney. He then continued in General Practice with a special interest in Paediatrics and Palliative Care in East London, Australia and Worcester, before coming to Burrswood in 1992, obtaining his Diploma in palliative care medicine in 1996. 

Steve Talmage – Head of Counselling

After an extensive background in business and commercial management and experiences as a ‘Leadership in Management’ tutor, Steve is now an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. He holds a diploma in Integrative Counselling. This is underpinned by a ‘person-centred’ approach which is at the heart of his counselling style.  His experience includes working with such issues as abuse, addictions, anger, anxiety, bereavement, chronic illness, depression, divorce, grief, marital problems, self-esteem, singleness, and spiritual problems.

Sue Pople – Head of Physiotherapy

Sue qualified from King’s College hospital in 1981.  She worked for several years in Brighton and then set up a small private practice which suited family life.

Her particular interest is encouraging and treating people  with long-term illnesses and she has spent over twenty years working in this field, including working with people at the later stages of Alzheimer’s and Dementia.  More recently she worked at an elective orthopaedic centre and then came to Burrswood in July 2008.

She enjoys the diversity of the work at Burrswood and the inter-disciplinary approach shared with other members of the team. She finds it wonderful to see care for the whole person as a reality.

Helen Winning - Head of Fundraising

Helen has come to fundraising after a varied career; a brief period in accountancy and events management was followed by a post-graduate degree at LSE and work in recruitment. After having two children, Helen wanted to work in areas where she could make a difference, firstly in charity administration and then the NHS. Most recently she has combined her business experience with a passion for theatre and spent 15 years as a senior manager in the arts. She has run venues in Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks, and London, managed several small theatre companies and run a £1 million project to improve access to theatre for disabled people.

Helen came to Burrswood as a temp, and felt so at home, she just stayed. Originally involved in fundraising from trusts and foundations, as Head of Fundraising her responsibilities now also include maximising voluntary income from individuals and companies, looking after the Burrswood Fellowship, organising events and working with the community to raise awareness and encourage support.   

In her spare time, Helen still enjoys the theatre, reading detective fiction and has recently taken up golf. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of Council for the Tunbridge Wells International Young Concert Artists (TWIYCA).

Graham Anderson – Estates Manager

Graham completed an apprenticeship in Mechanical and Electronic Engineering after leaving school in 1977, and gained Distinctions at HTEC level.

As an electronics engineer he designed and tested electronic systems for the MOD, later moving to another company as a systems software engineer, where he helped to design and develop credit card EPOS systems.

In 1987 he started his own business with his wife, Jan, but when recession hit in the 1990s he became Facilities Manager of a large secondary school in Essex.  In 2007 he and his family moved to Burrswood.  He is a member of the British Institute of Facilities Management.

In his free time he loves walking, surfing and watching almost any sport – particularly Formula One motor racing and Manchester United FC!