Meet the Trustee

Marie Stanley

I am originally from Ireland and have lived in the Sevenoaks area for the past 35 years or so.

My husband I have a daughter and four grandchildren aged 8 down to 1 years old. We are kept busy with sitting and school pick-ups!

I qualified as a Chartered Accountant in KPMG which is one of the big 4 accounting and consulting firms worldwide. Having spent some years in the audit department, I specialised as a Director in International Tax Planning for multinationals. The work involved quite a bit of travelling.

After a busy working life in the City, I took early retirement about 13 years ago. I then started looking for something completely different and started the study of art history and watercolour painting, both of which I thoroughly enjoy.

I also decided to get involved in a local charity and looked for one which might be able to use my financial and business skills. At this time, WKM was looking to recruit a new treasurer and so I took on the roles of treasurer and trustee. About 2 years ago I stepped down from the treasurer role but stayed on as trustee.

I particularly wanted to get involved in the mental health arena as even then there was still quite a stigma attached to mental ill health and it was clear that there was huge demand for mental health services. In addition I have a close family member who had just prior to that been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and it was a very traumatic and lengthy process getting that diagnosis.

I get great satisfaction from working with WKM. There is such need for our services and we can see from feedback how valued they are. The staff and volunteers are amazing. They are team players and fully committed and passionate and professional in their approach. We are a vibrant and well-run organisation making an impact far above our size.

We have great plans for the extension of our services but the real constraint is funding and this is not for lack of trying. Unfortunately there are too many charities chasing the same pots of money while the demand for mental health services is ever increasing, particularly since the pandemic.

We play such a vital role in mental health in West Kent and could do so much more with appropriate funding. My wish for WKM is that all our hard work pays off and that we secure sufficient funding so that our wonderful staff and volunteers can help even more clients in the future.