Marie’s involvement with Link Leisure began 18 years ago when she supported her son and daughter in their volunteer roles with the charity. She joined Link Leisure herself in November 2000 in a part time administration role. This soon developed into a full-time post managing the office and finances as the charity grew.

She spent many years working in the City in the Overseas Secretariat of the Sun Alliance & London Insurance Group (now RSA) dealing with personnel issues and training programmes for expatriate and indigenous staff as well as providing briefing papers for the General Management and translation from French and German as required.

She left the Group to raise her two children and during this time she worked from home on a pilot project which led to the development of a new Media Monitoring Service. She was also a governor of a local school for eight years six of those as chairman.

Lesley Spong joined Link Leisure on a full time basis in July 2007, following many years working at and running Link Leisure groups and activities outside her full time jobs and throughout her school and college days.

Lesley has experienced working in different fields from residential care to direct marketing and eventually coming from an Event Co-ordinator role supporting and co arranging Ford and Volvo corporate events for Wunderman Automotive, the main marketing agency for Ford UK.

Since working at Link Leisure, Lesley has successfully completed an NVQ Level 4 in Health and Social Care and is keen to expand her working knowledge in all areas including Social Care and Legislation.

Kat Mack first joined Link Leisure as a play scheme helper in 2001, and continued to work during her holidays as she studied for her BSc in Psychology and Biology.

She began to work more closely with those individuals with challenging behaviour and autism before progressing to the position of Group Leader for several years. In 2006 Kat joined the management team full-time as Connexions Personal Adviser, and has since worked with all of the age groups at Link Leisure, most recently in the role of Children’s Services Manager.

Kat is a qualified paediatric First Aider, has a Certificate in Playwork, and is highly trained in gastrostomy feeding, epilepsy and administration of emergency medications, allergies and using Epi-pen. Kat holds Foundations 1 and 2 in Safeguarding Children, is working towards her Diploma in Playwork and hopes to one day further her professional development through more advanced study in the field of clinical psychology.

Kristina has been working as both a seasonal worker and volunteer at Link Leisure for the past eight years alongside attending further education. She got involved with Link Leisure through her sister who has a mild learning disability. In September she joined the office on a part time basis working on a project to develop the services for the children with more complex needs.

Working with children with more complex needs is a sector of Link Leisure Kristina finds extremely rewarding.

She became full time in December after the Children’s Services Manager went on maternity leave. Over the past three months she has managed the Children’s Services alongside her Complex Needs project. Although Kristina primarily works with the younger members of Link Leisure she also attends one of the adult social groups each week. She has a BA Hons in Event Management which she obtained at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Jo became involved with Link Leisure through a friend, when she worked for the then joint scheme in the summer of 2002. She has been actively involved with every subsequent summer scheme and a few Christmas and Easter schemes. In November this year she took over the role of Youth Services Co-ordinator (LinkZone Co-ordinator). She is also involved in running two evenings a week sessions with the Surrey Heath Transition Group, and assists at Mayhem – our members’ nightclub.

She studied Art and Maths at St. Martins University, Lancaster, graduating in 2005.

Jo has been working as a Peripatetic Learning Support Assistant (PLSA) since Sept 2008, in a unique team run by Richmond Borough, supporting children with physical disabilities on a 1:1 basis in mainstream schools.

Rosemary has been involved with Link Leisure for 19 years, both as a parent of a user and as a board member. She was employed by a national learning disabled charity for nine years as the national welfare rights officer with specific responsibilities for press and PR. Rosemary works for the Woking CAB as a welfare rights officer and has a diploma in health and social welfare from the Open University.

Rosemary was an elected borough councillor from 1987 to 2003. During that period she was part of the leadership of a shared administration and also the Mayor in 1998/99. For a number of years she chaired the Council's Health and Housing Committee. In 2006 Rosemary was awarded the MBE for services to people with learning disabilities in Woking.

David has been in media and publishing for more than 30 years and has run his own SME business to business magazine for the past 17 years.  The company specialises in producing magazines and events for the recruitment industry and David uses his ‘day job’ to run Charity events such as Golf Days and 5-a-side football tournaments to raise funds for Link Leisure.

David was a guest at a Link Leisure Awards evening and was so inspired by its members and the Charity’s work that he became a Trustee in 2005. He was subsequently elected Vice Chairman and actively works on the Fundraising and HR Committees.

He lives in Horsell and is married to Gill, with two sons, James & Oliver. James is a regular weekly and holiday session volunteer for Link Leisure. In his spare time David is the manager for Oliver’s Woking Boys Under 13 Football team.

Debby Fieldus was invited to join the Trustee Board of Link Leisure by the founder, Maureen Young, approx. 7 years ago. Before having children, Debby qualified as a Nursery Nurse and worked at the Wharf Nursery in Godalming with the under 5's specialising in supporting 2 young children with Down’s Syndrome. Since 1984 Debby and her husband have run their own business, from which they have just retired. During this time Debby went on various business administration courses and dealt with many of the agencies engaged in the provision of aid to third world countries. One of her own children has a learning disability and consequently Debby is aware of many of the challenges faced by our young members and their families.

Fiona spent 20 years working in finance, initially working for the bank S.G. Warburg before moving into the investment management industry where she worked as a Client Director for Merrill Lynch Investment Management, JP Morgan Investment Management and Deutsche Asset Management. During this time she was responsible for clients with investments in excess of £2.5 billion.

In 2005, Fiona gave up work to care for her sick parents. She also began to look for a small local charity where she felt she could make a contribution. She became a Trustee of Link Leisure in 2006 she is Chair of the Fundraising Committee and sits on the Publicity and PR Committee  and Governance Committee. In addition, Fiona works on a part-time basis as a Consultant to a headhunting firm.

Fiona lives in Woking and is married with two sons, one of whom currently volunteers for Link Leisure helping out at the weekend clubs and summer play-schemes.

Mary has been actively involved in fundraising for Link Leisure since moving to the Woking area in 2000 when her eldest son, Aran, became an activity member. She has been a trustee since 2004. Mary leads the Publications & PR Committee and is active on the Fundraising and Premises Committees. Prior to starting a family Mary had a lengthy career in banking included assignments in the Middle East and USA during which time she was a Vice President & Relationship Manager for a client base in Europe and the Middle East.

Mary’s youngest son (Kyle), husband (Mark) and sister (Claire) all volunteer for Link Leisure in varying roles.

Brenda is a Chartered Company Secretary and a member of the Institute of Management Consultants. She has worked in the not-for-profit-sector for over 30 years. For 10 years she worked as a Regulator for the government agency responsible for supporting housing associations. In 1988 she established Infante Consultants, providing a specialist management consultancy for housing associations and charities.

As an independent consultant Brenda specialises in governance and frequently provides interim company secretary cover. She conducts governance reviews, facilitates board review days, conducts board appraisals and delivers board training and development. In addition she advises complex groups on their structure and governance arrangements. She is the Secretary/ Co-ordinator to the National Housing Association Company Secretaries Forum and a frequent speaker at regional and national conferences.

Brenda was a founder member of a rent guarantee scheme for young hostel residents in her hometown of Woking (run through Churches Together in Woking). She also served for several years as a board member of 1066 HA, the housing association which received the transfer of Hastings Council’s c.a. 6000 homes.

Peter Stock Joined the Board of Trustees of Link Leisure in 2007 and leads on the Finance Committee. He has a degree in Economics and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Peter has worked in both practice and industry for 20 years. He is currently a full time parent, and volunteers with two other charities: RDA – Riding for the Disabled Association and Canine Partners – Training assistance dogs for people with disabilities.

Sarah has been involved with Link Leisure for eleven years. Sarah became involved when her daughter, who is an activity member, joined a riding group. Soon after Sarah was asked to take over managing this activity and she was the group leader for many years. Sarah has also spent time working in the office and helping with fundraising. Sarah became a Trustee in 2005 and is on the premises and fundraising committees. Sarah was a Nanny for ten years with different families all over the world.

Penny is a GP. She was a full time partner in London for many years before moving to Woking nearly 5 years ago. She now works in clinical practice part-time as well as being involved in GP education and Clinical Governance.

She became a Trustee for Link Leisure in 2010 and has an interest in governance. She was introduced to the charity as a guest at a number of the fund-raising social functions. She has been very impressed by the service it provides to local people and the great goodwill that seems to come from both members and volunteers.

Penny is married with a young son and lives in Horsell.

Lesley qualified as a teacher in 1974. In 1985, she was given the opportunity to work 1:1 supporting one of the first visually impaired pupils to be integrated into a mainstream school. She then went on to take a post grad diploma in the education of visually impaired children. From 1985 Lesley taught pupils with visual impairments and went on to become an advisory teacher working across mainstream and special schools, supporting parents, pupils and teachers throughout Surrey. In 2002, Lesley decided to go back to the classroom and went to work at Gosden House School, a school which specialises in teaching pupils with learning and language difficulties until she retired in 2007.

Lesley became involved with Link Leisure as a charity when she volunteered to help with the High Notes choir. She became a Trustee in 2010.

Lesley is married and has two children who are both married. She lives in Guildford.