Joanna Lumley OBE
Joanna Lumley OBE is an English actress, former model, author and activist.
She is the recipient of three BAFTAS Awards, a Tony Nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play, the Special Recognition Award at the 2017 National Television Awards and the BAFTA Fellowship Award for her work on screen and stage.
In her many stage appearances she has worked with Harold Pinter, Alan Ayckbourn, Trevor Nunn and Jonathan Miller.
She played the legendary character Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous until 2012 and stepped back into the role in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie in 2016.
Her other TV credits include The New Avengers, Sapphire and Steel, Coronation Street and thirteen travel documentaries; on film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Shirley Valentine, James and the Giant Peach, Ella Enchanted, Corpse Bride and The Wolf of Wall Street among many others.
Lumley is also an advocate and human rights activist for more than seventy charities, and is known as ‘daughter of Nepal’ for her continuing work with the Gurkhas.
Sir David Henshaw
Sir David Henshaw was the Chief Executive of Liverpool City Council from 1999 to 2006. He was also Chief Executive of Liverpool Culture Company, Deputy Chair of the board of the Mersey Partnership and Chair of Liverpool Partnership Group. A Non-Executive Director of SOLACE Enterprises, a Past President of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives, a former Adviser to the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, a non Executive Director of the Home Secretary’s National Offender Management Board (Prisons, Probation and Youth Justice in England and Wales), He is an adviser to the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit, a member of the Treasury’s Public Services Productivity Panel, member of the Department of Health’s External Panel, and a Board member of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
Born and educated in Liverpool, he obtained a degree at in Public Administration, and then a Master’s Degree in Social Sciences at the University of Birmingham (INLOGOV).
He is also an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University,and an Hononary Doctor at Sheffield Hallam University a Fellow of Liverpool University, a former Visiting Fellow of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Trustee of the Faenol Trust, and a member of the Board of the European Institute for Urban Affairs at Liverpool John Moores University .Since leaving Liverpool he was appointed by the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to undertake a Re-Design of the Child Support system in the UK . He was Chairman of the North West NHS 2006 – 2011 and is now Chairman of Alder Hey Childrens Foundation Trust Hospital. A former Trustee of NESTA ,he was Interim Chair of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay 2012 – 2013 He is also a Non Executive Director on a number of other private and public bodies.
Dame Louise Ellman
Louise was the Labour/Cooperative MP for Liverpool Riverside from 1997 to 2019. Prior to that, she was Leader of Lancashire County Council, 1981-1997.
She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. She is a Vice President of the Jewish Leadership Council and President of the Jewish Labour Movement.
Louise has a BA (Hons) from Hull University and MPhil (Soc Admin) from York University. She has worked in Further Education and the Open University. She was Chair of the House of Commons Transport Select Committee from 2008 to 2017.
“I’m honoured and delighted to be asked to be a patron of this marvellous charity, which has done so much over the past 20 years to improve the life chances of children in Nepal.
I’m looking forward to helping to raise awareness of the issues, and therefore more funds, to make healthcare even better for future generations.”
Roger Phillips
Roger is a well-known and respected radio broadcaster. He has been living in Merseyside since the early 1970s where he was a part of the Everyman theatre company before taking up his career in radio.
Since 1978, he was the voice of Radio Merseyside’s lunchtime phone in, even continuing broadcasting from home during Lockdown. He retired in August 2020 after a prestigious and successful 42 year career which saw him accumulate a number of accolades including in 2000, being named “Sony Speech and Talk Broadcaster of the Year” and receiving in 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Radio Academy. In 2001, he was honoured by both the University of Liverpool with an honorary Doctorate of Law, and Liverpool John Moores University with an honorary Fellowship.
In 2009, he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Merseyside and in 2017, he was granted Liverpool’s highest accolade, the title of Citizen of Honour.
Roger is also a patron of many of many organisations, including Sundowns (Supporting, Understanding Needs of Downs Syndrome), He is President of WICH – Whiston Initiative in Cultural Heritage, Vice President of the Merseyside Civic Society and Ambassador for the Girl Guides.