Anu Vedi

Anu is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ACA) and is an honorary member of the Chartered Institute of Housing (MCIH). He retired in 2009 as Group Chief Executive of the Genesis Housing Group, a role he had held since 1999. Under Anu’s leadership, Genesis Housing Group increased its property portfolio ten-fold in just over a decade to become one of the largest housing enterprises in the UK. In addition, Anu established Genesis Community, the Group’s charitable foundation targeting deprivation and social exclusion in disadvantaged areas. He was previously a Board member of the Dolphin Square Trust and Relationships Foundation Advisory Board. Anu was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2006 in recognition of his strong and innovative leadership within the housing sector. Anu was a Board member of World Child Cancer from 2010 – 2017 and Chairman from 2014.

Caitriona Balfe

Whilst studying drama in Dublin, Caitriona was scouted by an agent and spent several years working as a model for top fashion brands. After returning to acting, Caitriona was quickly cast in a number of films including Escape Plan, JJ Abrams’ feature Super 8 and Now You See Me alongside Woody Harrelson and Mark Ruffalo. Most recently, Caitriona co-starred in the feature film Money Monster with George Clooney and Julia Roberts, directed by Jodie Foster. Caitriona continues to star in the series leading role of Claire in the Starz hit television series Outlander, for which she has won two People’s Choice Awards, two Saturn Awards, and an Irish Film and Television Award, and received four Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama.

The country you are born in should not be a deciding factor in your battle against cancer.  World Child Cancer works daily to give children in developing countries access to treatment and care and a fighting chance against this disease.  I am proud and honoured to be a patron of such a worthy charity. Please join me in helping in any way you can.

Gill Thaxter

Gill became patron of World Child Cancer in 2008. Along with her husband, Geoff, she saw the immense need for improvement in care for children with cancer in developing countries after visiting Bangladesh. It was that visit which inspired Geoff to found World Child Cancer. You can read more about Geoff in the ‘Founder’ section of the website.

Over the past years, Gill has been immensely proud to watch the growth of the charity and is thrilled that so many children and their families have been helped.

Global Chair

Gordon Morrison BEM Bsc

Tim Eden

Tim has held senior academic and clinical positions in Bristol, Edinburgh, London and Manchester where he was the Teenage Cancer Trust Professor of Teenage Oncology. He has chaired many national and international committees including as the President of SIOP (International Society of Paediatric Oncologists), Chair of UKCCSG (now CCLG UK) and the Medical Research Council Childhood Leukaemia Working Party. Tim’s interests include research into the causation, incidence and survival of children and adolescents with cancer worldwide, equable delivery of care for all children worldwide and the provision of psycho-social support for all children and their families. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers, editorials and book chapters on paediatric and adolescent haematology and oncology.

Tim retired in 2008 but remains very active in a number of organisations working in the field of childhood and teenage cancer in the UK and in low-income countries. He continues as a Medical Advisor to the Teenage Cancer Trust in Scotland and is active on several committees in the UK. He was an invaluable Trustee to World Child Cancer since the inception of the charity, tirelessly providing advice on the strategic development of projects and using his extensive network of international contacts to develop effective and sustainable twinning partnerships.

Tim has been married for 46 years to Randi Forsgren who introduced him to his second beautiful home of Norway. He has a son and daughter and three grandchildren. In between his busy work and his family, he enjoys Scandinavian crime novels, walking, photography, gardening, history and politics. His biggest dream is to retire and complete his first novel, not as easy as the non-fiction he has written over the last 35 years!

David Thomas

As a solicitor, David has acted for numerous human rights and animal protection NGOs, helping them to achieve their campaign objectives. He was formerly a civil litigation partner for a West End firm before joining Child Poverty Action Group, where he took numerous test cases against the Government in the higher courts in this country and in Europe. He co-founded the UK’s first animal protection law firm and is experienced in international law.

As a judge, David has dealt with disability benefits, mental capacity, freedom of information, data protection and occupation pension cases, amongst others.

He has been a Samaritan and a member of (amongst other bodies) the Law Society’s mental health and disability committee, a government body advising on legal aid in public interest cases, a European Commission working group and the advisory group for Burma Campaign UK. He is a former chair (current vice-chair) of the RSPCA and has been a trustee of other charities.

David’s involvement with World Child Cancer began when his son Daniel was receiving treatment for a rare kind of bone cancer. He was horrified to think of children suffering from cancer without the support they receive in high-income countries. He has done sponsored bike rides for WCC, including in Malawi, and is supporting a palliative care project in the country. He recently spent three months there helping WCC develop an advocacy strategy to increase survival rates for children with cancer.