Goodbye Simon and Welcome to John!
Goodbye and Thank You to Simon and Welcome to John!
For the last seven years, we have been extremely fortunate to benefit from Simon Elliott as our Chair of Trustees. Simon brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our organisation and ensured that we operated Link Visiting safely, securely and with ambition.
Simon has seen Link Visiting grow and develop greatly over his time with us. When we began, we were operating with minimal financial resources and with a small part-time staff team. We have more than doubled in size in his time with us and he has led us skilfully, helping and guiding us make the right decisions at the right time and always with the correct resources in place.
It was with great sadness therefore that we have said our fond farewells to Simon as he embarks on a new adventure with his family, emigrating to the other side of the world!
“I have hugely enjoyed my time at Link Visiting. This was my first serious voluntary experience and my respect and thanks go to all the team and trustees for the superb way they have worked constructively together for the benefit of the charity. I will greatly miss this role, and will keep in contact from Down-Under”. - Simon Elliott, Chair of Trustee’s 2014 – 2021
Welcome to John Mallaghan!
We are delighted and thrilled to announce John as our new Chair of Trustees. John has been volunteering for Link Visiting since 2014, starting as a volunteer befriender but quickly becoming involved in all aspects of the charity.
John has been instrumental in helping us win large funding awards including our contract with Wokingham Borough Council and with the National Lottery. He has always been happy to help at activities like bowls, Community Kitchen and parties as well as leading ambitious fundraising events like our skydive. John has served as a Link Trustee since 2017, and we believe he is perfectly placed to lead us to the next new and exciting chapter in our story and we are excited to work with him to grow and expand our work in the Borough.
“I have loved helping Link Visiting over the years, and I look forward to helping even more as Chair of Trustees. I still plan to assist where I can at events and continue visiting my two Link Friends, to experience first-hand the great work and outcomes delivered every day by the charity. I have often said this is the best small charity in the country. Watching how the team responded to the pandemic, now acknowledged by winning the High Sherriff Award and the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (equivalent to an MBE!) has only reinforced that. We aim to maintain those high standards and bring as many smiles to our Link Friends as we can.” - John, 2021