In his role as Chairman and Treasurer for Canine Concern, Chris helps to ensure that our charity is run correctly, and will continue to do so for years to come.

Chris’s career has included many roles such as being an accredited counter fraud officer for 18 years, a senior fraud manager and area manager for the south east region (which involved the management of staff and organisations covering Sussex, Surrey, Kent and outskirts of London). In addition to this he has also worked as a benefit fraud investigator and for the last 13 years, as a fraud investigator within the NHS, and for private providers of NHS services and private sector business.

Chris has been surrounded by dogs since as long as he can remember, and has two dogs (Bailey and Patch) and Boris the cat. He has always been passionate about the care of animals and has witnessed the benefits that they can have on peoples lives.

Colin has been a registered care home manager for over ten years. He has worked in the care sector for over 21 years, commencing his career working with residents with acquired brain injury, learning difficulties, physical disabilities and Huntingdon’s disease. He is now the manager of a residential care home for the elderly. He has owned several dogs and he has seen first-hand how beneficial a friendly care dog and of course, their owner, can be to residents living in care homes.

Lyn and Daisie

Trevor, Daisie and Pip

Meet Lyn, one of our valued volunteers and owner of four dogs, three ponies, guinea pigs and chickens. Lyn carries out visits for Canine Concern with three of her dogs: Trevor the poodle, Daisie the terrier cross and Pip the pug cross.

Daisie visits the elderly in a local care home, while rescue dogs Trevor and Pip visit residents at two of Eastbourne’s Mencap homes. Pip is especially suited to working with adults who have complex medical issues and challenging behaviour. Each dog knows when they’ve pulled up outside ‘their’ care home and cant wait to get inside and see their friends.

Trevor and Pip are competitive agility dogs, currently working at grades 4 and 3, and they, along with Daisie, hold awards from The Kennel Club’s Good Citizen Awards scheme. All of Lyn’s dogs help out with her dog training clients, demonstrating exercises and helping to socialise younger dogs.

Tina is one of the area coordinators for our volunteers in Essex, which is a large friendly group. She organises local dog walks followed by a coffee and a chat, attends local events, does chats about Canine Concern and helps any new members in that area with placements if it’s needed. She also produces a monthly local newsletter which helps to keep everyone connected and informed.

Tina has two care dogs: Bushy, a little yorkie mix, and Oscar, a Spanish water dog. Together they visit a sheltered housing home for adults with disabilities, Chelmsford county court (a family court) and a special needs school.

Tina used to work in human resources and was also a unit manager with British Telecom, managing large teams of people (50+).

Valerie with her dogs, Savannah & Cadbury

Valerie is a long-standing member of Canine Concern, who was involved with the administration of Eastbourne’s Canine Concern for several years, before becoming the CEO of the national charity in 2016.

She currently visits three local schools, two local care homes and often joins in with the very busy university, police and company/business visits for the charity.

These roles were originally shared with her chocolate laborador, Cadbury, but were later taken over by her golden retriever, Savannah and yellow laborador, Konnor, when Cadbury unfortunately passed away in October 2018.

Both Konnor and Savannah love going to the woods and getting covered in mud and brambles. The residents and students they visit never believe Val when she explains how mischievous they are, as in the care homes and schools, they always look so sweet and innocent, but we know better!

Val has run her own human and canine complementary therapy business for over 30 years, providing treatments, workshops and training. Alongside her own business, she was also employed latterly as a part time activity coordinator in a care home, arranging regular outings and visitors, including human entertainers and animals. Val has been involved in administration throughout her career, either for her own businesses or her earlier employed work, managing health clubs as well as a couple of social clubs.

(BSc (Hon), LCSP (Phys) IHM BSYA (MT) BSYA (CMA) MCMA DIP Canine Massage, Cert in Dog Psychology)

Brian is a very keen supporter of our Read to Dogs programme, in conjunction with The Kennel Club, whereby charities of our kind can support children in basic reading skills and confidence.

He has now retired from his life as a commercial manager in the construction industry, where he mainly worked at Heathrow & Gatwick Airports, and has joined Canine Concern to support his wife Valerie in running all aspects on the financial and commercial side of the charity.

He also has a wealth of knowledge in commence both in this country and overseas, having worked throughout Europe & the Middle East. As such, Brian has managed to implement many controls within the charity to ensure the smooth running within his field of expertise. All aspects of the memberships are computerised, as well as running bespoke CRM systems, along with accounting systems.

Brian has many hobbies, which include photography, woodworking, and seascape/landscape painting. He started out life training to become a graphic designer and soon went into photography, working for some of the leading photographers in London in the late 1960s.

Sadly, he did not have the finance needed to pursue his passion and instead went into his family business in construction, working his way up over the years to become a commercial manger controlling multi-million-pound construction schemes.

Today he remains passionate about what Canine Concern can achieve, in reaching out to the vulnerable, those needing support, help and understanding in the community.

Along with Valerie, he has two dogs (Savannah and Konnor) and lives in Eastbourne, East Sussex.