Our team

Liam was Laura's sole cousin and is striving to ensure that mental health issues and awareness are a thing of the past for our precious nurses, paramedics, police officers and fire personnel

How do you know Laura?

"Laura was my only cousin on my mother's side and really was the closest thing to a sister that I ever had.

She knew how to wind me up, knew when i was low even though i wouldn't admit it and would look to turn heads when having a family meal with her 'unique laugh'.

But most of all she was able to make me proud especially of her bravery in participating in the military like many other heroes but also ensure that her caring and selfless side came to the fore with her focus on nursing.

She was a pretty cool cousin to have."

Why support the charity?

"Well after some soul searching and discussions in the family, it really boils down to one reason....

We wanted to prevent other people from feeling like Laura did and turn a very large negative into a glowing positive for years to come

That's why our tagline of "caring for the people that care about us" suits us so perfectly.

What you will be doing?

"Well alongside my fellow trustees, champions and wider supporters, I will be looking to consolidate our position as a new charity within 2018 and raise as much awareness as possible.

Given alignment to my day job, I will be running all of the media and marketing aspects of the charity as well as running key fundraising activities across the rest of the year.

This includes me running a number of runs this year in a brand new fancy dress outfit that will be revealed soon!

Jennifer was Laura's auntie and holding multiple roles in psychiatric nursing and occupational health, her clinical expertise allows LHF to shape their output to be most effective

 How do you know Laura?

"Well I am Laura's Auntie and along with my fellow trustee Liam, really want to represent our family as part of this journey.

Laura was someone who I treated as a daughter and we certainly shared similar interests but this is best depicted by how we progressed in our professional lives.

I myself was a royal Air Force nurse and I was able to use my experience to help support Laura as she made her big step into the forces.

I then progressed into general nursing, psychiatric nursing and then occupational health so my exposure to these roles and the work i did, I was extremely proud to see Laura follow a noble profession such as the one she carried out."

Why support the charity?

"There is just a real gap for the support and guidance we can offer when you look at what's out there.

Even when you do find something, it can be found to be pretty generic and something that is out of a textbook and we need to change that

Having been at the coal face to the daily issues, pressures and struggles that specifically nurses find themselves under, we really feel that we can deliver something truly unique and incredibly valuable from what we do.

We absolutely want to ensure that our tagline and mission statements come true."

What will you be doing?

"Given my unique and similar experience to Laura in the fact that i have covered both military and medical roles, i am ensuring that the approach, language used meets the necessary standard so to create the biggest impact of our work.

I am also ensuring that whatever advice or work that we produce is clinically correct as we have to ensure that certain guidance and best practice techniques formed from organisations such as MIND and The Samaritans are made use of.

Speaking of work and outputs however, my role will be to deliver our literature that we plan to bring out in 2018, one of our key targets and something we will be updating you all on

Imogen provides LHF with unique expertise resulting from her digital strategy and marketing background. Her appointment will also ensure our trustee board has an external influence which will support our current initiatives and future vision 

Why are you supporting LHF?

It is a cause I feel passionately about as we've all been helped by these kind, caring and selfless people when we are at our lowest points. 

I want to ensure that we provide them with the appropriate support structures they deserve, to preserve and proactively improve their mental health and promote a wider destigmatisation approach to mental health. 

This charity is unique in it's dedication to focussing on the mental health of workers within the police force, fire service and medical professions and I want to help the Laura Hyde Foundation in their mission of helping these wonderful people. 

What will your role be?

My role will focus on definition and development of the following areas:

Fundraising - to identify potential fundraising opportunities from areas such as merchandise or corporate sponsorship as well as providing assistance where needed to supporters pursuing their own fundraising for the charity

Partnerships - to ensure we can spread our mission to a wider audience by leveraging the access and reach of appropriate individuals or 3rd parties

Events - to further raise awareness of our cause by driving events to promote our vision and demonstrate our achievements and to ensure all events hosted or managed by Laura Hyde Foundation run smoothly 

Social - to plan content for supporters to engage with and to showcase memorable moments that the charity and it's supporters are involved in

How did you know Laura?  

I met Laura pretty soon after I joined Derriford hospital from basic training in 2012.  After a few drinks in the junior rates bar, which we got to know each other better over, I knew she was a friend for life.  From then we spent most of our days off together.  Laura was always on the go whether it be cycling, walking other people’s dogs, going to the beach or out for a drink or 2 in the sunshine.  She was always the life and soul of whatever we were doing! As well as being the light that lit up the room she also had the biggest heart she even stayed behind in Plymouth to cook myself and Tom a Christmas dinner as we were working Christmas instead of going home to her family a day early.  She was always walking dogs from the dog shelter and the go to person whenever you needed a meaningful chat! Laura has such a large friendship group and we all miss her every single day and no matter who you talk to we all have completely different yet amazing memories of the fun times we had with her.    

Why support the Laura Hyde foundation?   

This charity is such an amazing lifeline to people who work under such immense pressure within the medical world or the emergency services.  These people see a lot of things that can haunt us or cause a great deal of stress and if this charity can stop one more person taking their life then in my eyes it is worthwhile.  Not only will this charity help people find a new way of dealing with life and find happiness if it prevents a suicide it is preventing a mass of grief, guilt and emptiness that is left behind when a loved one/friend takes their life.   

What will you be/ want to do within the charity?  

My role as a charity champion will be to raise awareness of mental health issues within the workplace of medical and emergency services personnel and help get the ball rolling for fundraising so that the charity can become established enough to help the masses that need support.