Now widowed with one son, I was originally educated at Wrekin College, Wellington, thence studying business management in Coventry. I worked for Rootes Motors for a number of years in varying positions around the UK.  I returned to Oswestry, owning and running a retail motor franchise representing Peugeot until retiring in 2008.

I was interested in becoming a Trustee, when invited, as I hoped to bring a broader range of commercial experience to the running and administration of the Trust.

I was one of the initial members helping to establish Oswestry Rugby Club and still enjoy watching rugby and supporting Wales, especially in Cardiff. I have a lifelong interest in messing about in boats of all shapes and sizes, and thoroughly enjoyed cruising the Scottish Islands and South and West coasts of Ireland.

I qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2007, having worked mainly in audit throughout my training and since qualifying. I have moved between jobs and across the country but settled back to the Oswestry area in 2014 to be close to family, having grown up near the Orthopaedic Hospital, and give our children stability for schooling. I am a director of CBSL Accountants, an independent accountancy practice based in Shrewsbury, where we have a broad mixture of clients from owner-managed family run local businesses to international groups – I love the challenge and variety of my role, working with a great team and building strong relationships with our clients and their families. 

My work passion throughout my training and to date is working with charities – from audits and independent examinations to preparing accounts for charities and working with Trustees to look at controls and management reporting. I am fortunate to have worked at accountancy practices in both Cambridge and Oxford, where I worked with a considerable range of charities and university affiliates, many of which were involved with research and training. 

 I enjoy being involved with the Orthopaedic Institute – as a local charity that focuses on research and training with a leading reputation.  Its also really interesting to be on the other side of the table being audited rather than auditor & understanding first-hand the challenges facing Trustees and our members.

Val is a local girl – born and bred in Trefonen near Oswestry where her family have lived for many generations.  She still lives there as does one of her sons and she feels a very strong connection to the local community.  She attended the local village school and then Bellan House Preparatory School.  From age  11 she attended Oswestry Girls High School and after O levels and A levels she took a law degree at the University College of Wales Aberystwyth. 

 She completed her legal studies at College of Law Chester and then trained at Hatchers Solicitors.  Over 40 years later she is still a partner there!!   She specialises in commercial and agricultural property law and has wide experience of both.   She is also involved in the management of Hatchers and runs the firm’s marketing and property needs.  She is President of the Shrewsbury Business Chamber and a member of the local Bank of England Panel. 

 Val’s Grandfather was badly injured in WW1 and received much of his treatment at  the Orthopaedic.  They literally saved his life!  The hospital and the research work it does have therefore always been close to her heart and it was for that reason she accepted the invitation to become a Trustee. 

Val has three adult children and four small grandchildren.  She is very much a country girl and is never happier than when she’s out in the fields.  Horses have always played a major part in her life.  Although she does not ride very often these days, she breeds sports ponies and loves spending time with her youngsters.  All of Val’s children have competed since Pony Club days and one of her proudest moments was when they rode in the Prince Philip Cup at the Horse of the Year Show.   

Val’s children continue to compete in Mounted Games (an obscure but hugely enjoyable equestrian sport) and she is an international judge, past Chairman of Great Britain  and a representative of it on the British Equestrian Federation Council.  Her  her two sons have been top international riders and have won both the World and European Championships. .  Val loves going to the cinema and tries to see all of the Oscar nominated films each year.  Any time left is spent in her garden and kitchen.

Brian studied biochemistry at the University of Wales (Bangor) and undertook his doctoral work on skeletal proteins at the University of Oxford. His post-doctoral work at the University of Munster, Germany and the MRC Bone Research Lab in Oxford focussed on stem cells in bone marrow.

In 1985, Brian moved to the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital to become the Head of Arthritis Research. The Orthopaedic Institute helped enormously to develop the research laboratories at the hospital, and in 1996, following a national appeal run by the charity, the Leopold Muller Arthritis Research Centre was opened. The new facilities allowed them to recruit and train excellent researchers working on projects as diverse as the mechanisms of the movement of blood cells into joints of patients with inflammatory arthritis and the behaviour of stem cells and cartilage cells grown in culture. Working with orthopaedic surgeon Prof James Richardson, and with the support of the Orthopaedic Institute, he set up the cell therapy facility at the hospital, the only one of its kind in the UK, producing cells used clinically to repair damaged cartilage.

Brian became a director of the Orthopaedic Institute in 1996 and in 2014 became Chairman, taking over from Robert Parry who had to step down suddenly for family health reasons. Having seen the benefits that the charity has given in the promotion and development of research, teaching and learning, it has been a pleasure for him to take the responsibility of leading the charity until stepping down in September 2020.

PhD

Being a local yokel, I was born, bred and educated largely in and around Oswestry.

Starting work in RJAH in 1980 in Mr Norman Nisbet’s Charles Salt Centre, I began a long tradition of working with surgeons, firstly the spine surgeons, Mr John O’Brien (Jack the Back!)and then Professor Stephen Eisenstein before linking up with Professor James Richardson and his successors, Pete Gallacher and Paul Jermin.

I undertook my PhD on hip osteoarthritis at Birmingham University during this time and subsequently the hospital has linked up with Keele University.  

Research interests are generally cartilage based, understanding its biology and function, what leads to its demise and how we can turn back the clock and repair or regenerate it when it goes wrong.

Having been very fortunate to have had the support of the Orthopaedic Institute Ltd for our group’s research over the years, it is an honour to have become a Trustee recently.

My career path through BT led me to work as a Business Sales Administration Manager for a number of years then moving into Event Management as an Operations Director before relocating back to Shropshire.

In my spare time I love to walk, ride, dance, cook and spend time with family and friends.

I am the Orthopaedic Institute’s Course Organiser, organising some 26 clinical courses each year. The majority of my career for 10 years was in the private education sector , where I worked with younger children & also ran the international holiday club. My most recent role was very different where I moved to the travel industry and was an assistant manager in a independant travel agents.

I have lived in and around Oswestry throughout my life, and have always felt very lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the country. When I am not working, myself and my family enjoy exploring new places, we also like travelling abroad.

I am married with a 2 Year Old Son Albert.