Our new chair
RETIRED NUNEATON DOCTOR TAKES OVER AS CHAIR OF THE WPH CHARITABLE TRUST
Retired Nuneaton doctor Peter Handslip has been appointed Chairman of the WPH Charitable Trust.
In his new role Dr Handslip will lead the board of trustees as they steer the allocation of medical and non-medical grants to groups, individuals and organisations across Coventry and Warwickshire over the next two years.
The Consultant Respiratory Physician said his aspirations for the Trust include continuing to build on its success to date and attracting more applications from across the region.
Dr Handslip will work with board members whose backgrounds lie in medicine, surgery, paediatrics and general practice, as well as those who work in finance, law, and estate and business management. Together they bring rounded medical and business expertise to the table.
Dr Handslip said: “The WPH Charitable Trust is a very well-run charity with excellent support from its members.
“Not only does this breadth of experience help us to make balanced judgements on the individual grant applications, but it also helps us to ensure that our fund can support the level of spending required to meet the grants approved.”
After graduating from the Welsh National School of Medicine in 1973, Dr Handslip then worked as a lecturer in medicine to St Thomas’ Hospital in London from 1979 until 1984. Dr Handslip then moved to Warwickshire to join the George Eliot NHS Trust as a Consultant Physician.
Over more than three decades with the Trust he also worked as Medical Director, Clinical Director and Director of Education, before retiring in 2016.
In addition Dr Handslip was Medical Director of the Arden Cancer Network which worked to uphold and maintain the standard of cancer treatment services delivered across Coventry, Warwickshire and Worcestershire, overseeing a population of 1.2 million people.
Cancer networks such as Arden proved so successful the model was replicated in other areas of healthcare such as cardiovascular disease and stroke.
Dr Handslip joined the WPH Charitable Trust some three or four years ago having been convinced by colleagues of the charity’s worth. He brings valuable links to the north of the county where WPH Charitable Trust is attempting to better distribute more funds.
He said: “The fantastic thing about the WPH Charitable Trust is that even our smallest grants can make a huge difference to everyday people in our communities who otherwise would be at a loss with pain and suffering.
“Among those we have given to have been a nine-year-old girl with Cystic Fibrosis and Hereditary Motor and Sensory Neuropathy – which causes muscular wastage – who received an exercise bike which helps her manage her conditions, a pensioner who received a stairlift from us and a Multiple Sclerosis patient who received a mobility scooter.
“From an outside point of view we might not realise just how life changing these grants can be, but they clearly mean so much to our beneficiaries and the letters of thanks we receive can be so humbling.”
As well as the WPH Charitable Trust, Dr Handslip is a Trustee of Mary Ann Evans Hospice in Nuneaton and has sat on a number of Executive teams in Warwickshire and on national societies.
