GOVERNOR PROFILE
EASY RIDER Colin Pearson Public Governor – St Helens
Life in the fast lane led to health issues for Colin Pearson. Art gave him an antidote to stress. Now he’s using his life experience to guide his role as a Trust Governor.
M
y working life has taken me in several directions; architect, senior police officer, volunteer and now a governor. I qualified as a police road craft instructor many years ago. I make time for my greatest passion, motorcycling. I ride as often as I can. As an architect the hours were long, with early starts and late finishes each day. I loved the job but the job didn’t love me. The pressures of the job were all I could see in front of me. I developed medical problems due to the stress of my work and became isolated. Eventually I sought help. I was diagnosed with clinical depression and medically retired.
COMING
Colin used art as therapy.
All of this knocked my confidence. I felt completely out of the game to the point that I needed inpatient care and I spent some time on a Mersey Care ward. It was there that, step by step, things started to improve. As part of my recovery I got involved in the arts and crafts sessions, in fact I ended up running them. It was things like this that helped to turn me around and put a spring back into my step. To me, art is important and it should be all about fun and enjoying yourself. I realised there was an ideal opportunity for me to use my life experience to help support others so I became a governor.
SOON
I spend as much time as I can speaking with patients. I think I have a sympathetic understanding towards their situations. After all I’ve been there myself, and I know how many people were there to support me. What Mersey Care offers is exemplary – in my experience it’s what a good health care provider should be. I want to work to help keep it that way. As a governor I’ve sat on numerous project groups, which has helped to acquaint me with the work they’re doing and I can see that staff are committed to implementing new initiatives. I believe that I can help shape Mersey Care to be the best place it can for our patients our staff and the communities we serve.
Governor elections will take place early 2024. If you would like to find out what a governor role involves, please visit our website: merseycare.nhs.uk/council-of-governors
Find out more about our membership and governors at: merseycare.nhs.uk Tel: 0151 471 2303 Email ft.membership@merseycare.nhs.uk Write to: Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, Corporate Affairs, Hollins Park House, Hollins Park, Hollins Lane, Winwick, Warrington, WA2 8WA
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