Our Trustees
Meet the Trustees of Sight Support West of England
Heather Armstrong
Heather is a retired Chartered Physiotherapist, her Clinical specialty being Pain Management. She has been a Senior Manager in both Professional and General Management in Provider and Commissioning Organisations within the NHS. She has considerable experience in change management in both professional practice and in NHS service delivery.
Heather has been visually impaired since the age of 21. Prior to this, she had trained and practiced as a Psychiatric Nurse. She is also a Trustee of Pain Concern, a charity for people with long-term pain, and is a volunteer speaker for Guide Dogs.
Heather is interested in promoting and ensuring the involvement of visually impaired people in decision-making and delivery of relevant services as well as the attainment of equal partnership with sighted people in general.
Heather’s other interests include dancing, travel and reading.
Amar Shah
Amar Shah is an Optometrist with his own practice as a Boots Opticians franchise in Keynsham, Bristol. He has worked with visually impaired clients for all of his professional career. Amar also works one day a week in the eye department at Royal United Hospital in Bath.
Amar is chair of the Avon Local Optical Committee and works nationally with the Local Optical Committee Support Unit as an Optical lead. He has been a trustee of two children’s charities and has always had an active volunteering role.
Outside of work, Amar enjoys spending time with his young family and, when not with them, getting out on his bike or running.
Lauren Williams
Lauren currently works for Age UK as Strategic Change Manager supporting local partners across England. Previous experience includes 20 years of working with a range of charities including those supporting people with vision impairment, hearing impairment and arthritis. Her roles have ranged from that of CEO to fundraising, service development and marketing. Lauren has programme management experience working with a range of partners including the NHS and Local Authorities. She has also enjoyed working as a consultant supporting the development of local charities.
Lauren lives just outside Bristol with her young family and loves gardening and reading.
Simon Russell
Simon is a specialist in communication and engagement. Both in-house and through running a consultancy, he has supported the communication needs of different organisations. This includes media relations, public affairs, stakeholder engagement and social media management.
For several years, Simon has worked with Goalball UK, the national governing body for the sport specifically developed for people that are blind or that have a visual impairment.
Simon is keenly interested in current affairs and is also an enthusiastic sports fan. An unremarkable playing career is now largely replaced by coaching football as he is convinced of the great value that can follow from participation in sport (as a participant, volunteer or coach). Simon is married with two adult sons.
Nick Grinham – Chair of Trustees
Nick is a retired business leader who has lived in North Wiltshire for most of his life. He has extensive experience in leading large and diverse teams across the world. He has worked in the retail, publishing and the oil and gas sectors, holding senior leadership positions in Human Resources, business strategy and transformation and Information Technology.
Throughout his career, Nick has promoted and passionately advocated for inclusion in all forms in the workplace. Nick’s hobbies include travel, walking and sports (especially football and cricket). He is married with two adult daughters.
Roger Bonner
Roger is retired after more than 40 years of working in international development, specialising in the development of education and health infrastructure delivery systems.
In 2003, whilst working in Egypt, Roger had the misfortune to lose most of his sight. Thanks to advances in technology, he was able to continue operating at the highest professional levels, highlighting that an impairment does not stop a person from contributing to society. In 1996 Roger was awarded the OBE for services to international development.
Since retirement, Roger has been a volunteer with Sight Support, assisting clients to better understand how technology can assist them to lead full and interesting lives.
Roger enjoys reading, photography, walking and genealogy.
Ioan McAvoy
Ioan is a Bristol-based chartered accountant with a wealth of experience in charity finance. Having trained at a charity-specialist accountancy firm, Ioan has worked with organisations ranging from small local charities to high-profile international non-profits. Ioan worked closely with Sight Support West of England as our Audit Manager before agreeing to jump on board as Treasurer when he left that role in early 2024.
Ioan is passionate about the charity sector and has specialised in disability charities, particularly those involving sight and hearing loss. He currently works as Financial Accountant at the Royal National Institute for Deaf People.
Outside of work, Ioan enjoys cycling, reading, football and plays bass guitar in a Ceilidh band.
Anela Wood
My name is Anela Wood and I am from a Pakistani Muslim background although I am Bristol born and bred. I was born with an eye condition called Congenital Glaucoma and although I had some site while growing up,now I am completely blind. I do a lot of volunteering work advocating for the visually impaired community, I enjoy my roles both as a trustee for Sight Support West of England and a member of the West of England Sight Loss Council.
In my spare time I enjoy cooking, reading books, watching films, going to the theatre, listening to music, dancing, exercising, fashion, shopping, traveling, having meals out and seeing family and friends.