Our Team
Sanchia Sanday Coordinator
Sanchia joined BDDF in November 2022 having previously worked in education, IT administration and sales support, various customer service and administration roles. She is really looking forward to this new opportunity and very excited to be working closely with the members and volunteers.
Sanchia has lived in Basingstoke for most of her life and has two teenagers who attend a local school. She enjoys family time, travelling around the UK, especially Cornwall and visiting new places abroad. Other interests include walking, watching rugby and following F1 motor racing.
Lizzie Brisco Fundraising Coordinator
Lizzie is in the final stages of a PhD in Ecology, and will hopefully soon be a Doctor. She became disabled in her early twenties, and is passionate about helping to change attitudes around invisible illnesses and disabilities. She brings her data analysis and writing skills to her new role as our Fundraising Coordinator, and hopes for lots of funding success.
She moved to Basingstoke last year, and lives with her wife, two cats, and crazy spaniel dog in a tiny flat. In her spare time she is often found in a nice coffee shop with her wife and dog, or playing video games. She also enjoys live music, and enthusiastically supports campaigns to make this more accessible.
George Leonard
George has lived in Basingstoke all their life and has been a member of BDDF since they turned 18. They work in a craft store as well as with BDDF. They are passionate about disability rights and access and spends time learning about disability activism and attends disability exhibitions. George is a disabled person and has a passion for changing views on disability, increasing accessibility and disability pride.
George lives with their parents, sisters and dog. In their free time they are often found crafting or spending time on social media where they enjoy making posts and chatting with others in the disabled community.
Volunteers
Jane Brydges Volunteer
‘‘I am 81 years old and have to admit that I have enjoyed getting older – it is so much more fun than being young!’’ Jane was a working mum all her life, always in office roles for small private companies & is a partially qualified accountant. She has been married twice & had 4 children and now has 3 Grandchildren & 2 Great Grandchildren.
Jane has been involved with BDDF for nearly a decade, originally as a volunteer, followed by being a Trustee, treasurer and finally Chair. Jane moved to the Isle of Wight in 2020 to be closer to family. She continues to volunteer for BDDF in a variety of ways; supporting to write policies & setting up a phone service to help alleviate loneliness & isolation during the Covid pandemic.
Matt Woods Volunteer
Matt has volunteered for BDDF since 2014 on events such as the Basingstoke Roll, The scarecrow trail, collecting money for the charity in Tesco and at the disability awareness days. Matt works for basingstoke Mencap as a leisure support worker.
Matt has a wide range of hobbies & loves playing & watching sport including football, golf, cricket & Ice Hockey. He supports the Basingstoke Bisons. He also enjoys going to the cinema & spending time with friends.
Barbara Cummins Volunteer
Barbara has lived in Basingstoke most of her life. When her family were young she was Brown Owl & on the PTA. She is currently a trustee at Headway Basingstoke which supports people with an acquired brain injury. She supports BDDF by doing signposting & walking groups.
‘‘I know Basingstoke to be a town that is supportive and community minded and I have always enjoyed being part of that.’’
Barbara’s working life was entirely in the NHS mostly as a Podiatrist & in later years managing NHS services in the community. This gave her in-depth knowledge of what support is available in the Basingstoke area and this supports her work with our signposting service.
In her leisure time she enjoys walking, cycling & especially cycle touring. She has managed to pedal around 24 countries on 6 continents. She also enjoys playing croquet several times a week & doing stained glass art.
Tracy Hinnigan Volunteer
Tracy is working with us to support and advise on HR practices. She has 20 years experiences in supporting people within the Financial Services and Insurance industries. She is a keen supporter of local services and has been chairperson of the Basingstoke NCT & an active supporter of the Save Chineham Library Campaign.
Tracy has lived in Basingstoke for 15 years after moving from Kent with her husband. She now has two children who live with her in Lychpit.
Tracy loves walking, baking and gardening, all activities that she can enjoy with her children.
Meet the Trustees
Ani Spalding Chair
Ani has 14 years Corporate Banking experience and currently is a Senior Corporate Support Manager for Large Corporates within HSBC UK Bank plc. Previous roles involved Team Leadership, delivering Customer Experience strategy and managing transformation focused projects. Graduating in Geography BSc at The University of Leicester.
Ani is married to her husband James and has 2 children. They live near Basingstoke. She enjoys travelling, painting, spending time with her family and has a passion for supporting the local community.
Jules Thomas Founder Trustee
Jules has lived in Basingstoke for 48 years, and is registered blind. In addition to his trustee role with BDDF, he is a member of the Access for All working group, and Chair of the Basingstoke Disabled sports club Dis-Sport Beavers. Jules is also a trustee of Helping Hands for the Blind and the Basingstoke disabled games.
Jules actively organizes the annual Basingstoke Disabled Games where 80 to 100 people with disabilities from all over the south of England come to compete.
Becki Meakin Trustee
For more than 20 years Becki has worked in the voluntary and community sector. She is a disabled person with expertise in the inclusive involvement of people from marginalised and under-represented communities. She has conducted many user-led research studies into the inequalities experienced by people when they use health and social care services.
She has also worked with a range of organisations to develop inclusive involvement strategies including the British Association of Social Workers and the University of Essex. Becki appeared in the BBC Top 100 Women's Series 2018/19 for work with disabled women experiencing violence and abuse; raising awareness of the barriers disabled women face when trying to access support services.
Mark Soutter Trustee
Mark is a a boatbuilder and a Chartered Accountant, with experience in C-Suite roles. He has over forty years’ experience across a range of businesses and countries in Europe, North America and Asia. ‘‘I have a passion for working with SMEs where I feel my enthusiasm and ability to work with others makes a difference.’’
For the last twenty years I’ve been in shipping and the transportation of bulk commodities. This experience is combined with partnerships and membership organisations. My experience is not limited to this and I can provide general advice to a wide range of small / medium sized businesses.
Many SMEs may have their own team and in the case of smaller companies, lack an experienced independent financial manager who they can share and discuss issues with. I can help lead Boards and Senior Managers in areas such as such as corporate governance, management reporting and partnership accounting as well as transfer pricing, legal matters, company secretarial, sanctions, treasury and bank relationships and raising finance.
I like working with people and work well developing and training others.
Jane Frankum Trustee
Jane was a Councillor for 24 years, during that time she supported BDDF greatly & then became a BDDF Patron in May 2018. Since November 2021 Jane has switched to being a BDDF Trustee.
During her time as a councillor she came across huge amounts of cases for people who were disabled or were caring for a disabled person, often they did not even realise they were carers. ‘‘Although I was able to help, I did not really appreciate just what impact being disabled brought until I became disabled myself, some 20 years ago my disabilities got more severe.’’
‘‘In 2014 I served as Deputy Mayor for the borough and I met Pamela Heyfron and Jayne Bridges and was immediately impressed with their commitment the next year when I was Mayor, I was invited to literally hundreds of charities and all were doing a great job. BDDF shone through as a charity that was helping many people and had the capacity to help even more. Over the recent years I have seen it grow and touch many more people however there is still a long way to go and I would like to be there helping as much as I can.’’
‘‘As a patron I was able to see more closely what BDDF do and thought what would I bring to BDDF, I hope that I can help as I have built up a knowledge and network that I can use to help BDDF to move even more forward. I have found huge issues as a disabled buggy driver that I have encountered, I am frustrated that the people I talk to often say” yes I know it is a problem but I work around it”. One major issue is the lack of access for buggy drivers to travel within their local area or into town to shop. I hope with the help of members we can highlight and get some action for future developers and planning applications to make better provision for travel.’’
Carol Hawkins Trustee
Carol is a Learner Support Assistant currently working in a local Primary School. Over the years she has been volunteering in various roles in and around Basingstoke. Most recently undertaking a position for helping individuals via a Crisis line. She has just completed the introductory course to Counselling which she hopes will also help in this role as a Trustee.
Carol lives just outside of Basingstoke with her partner and has 2 children. She is a member of the Basingstoke Rock Choir in which she sings and also signs to help promote inclusion within the choir. Music has always been a big part of her life from singing to dancing and learning to play instruments.
Carol is very keen to assist and help in any way she can using her own health issues and experiences as a foundation to understanding others needs.
Hannah Reilly Trustee
Hannah has lived in Basingstoke since 2011 and has been an avid volunteer since she moved here. Her work has mainly been with the Willis Museum, volunteering on the pod desk since 2012. She also been sectary of the Access for All Group Basingstoke and Deane since 2017. in past 10 years has members of BDDF and has occasionally volunteer for them in that time working along Jane Brydges and Amanda Knowles. now she is looking forward to joining the trustee board.
“I’ve always liked Basingstoke Town Centre, ever since I was little because it has easy access for wheelchairs and has an indoor shopping centre. These were a big draw for me when I started to live independently 12 years ago.”
“I’m proud to be on the committee for the Access for All Group; we’re an independent group of volunteers that look into access issues in the Basingstoke and Deane area. Recently, we approached Sports Direct to ask them to make access around their store easier for wheelchair users."
Trustee Vacancy
BDDF are actively open to hearing from those interested in becoming a Trustee. If you have a couple of hours spare a month, want to give back to the community and care about making the lives of our disabled community better, we would love to hear from you! We want our Board to reflect the community and encourage applicants of any gender, race, age. Those with lived experience of disability are preferred but not essential.
This is a voluntary position but will provide good experience and opportunity to learn new skills. If interested please email chair@BDDF.org.uk for more information.