Charity ambassadors
Our EyUp! ambassadors are advocates for our charity. They give their time, energy and support to help us make a proper difference for those people in our services and local communities.
From helping raise awareness about what we do and supporting us in our fundraising, to using their many skills and talents to deliver creative therapies to those people (and their families and carers) who use our services – our ambassadors are bloomin’ fabulous.
Meet our ambassadors…
Ashley Jackson
Ashley Jackson has had an extremely distinctive and illustrious life in the world of art. Since opening his first gallery in Dodworth back in 1963, he has become one of the country’s leading and most successful landscape watercolourists. His unique evocative and distinctive paintings of brooding moorlands have become synonymous with Yorkshire, and more particular the moors above and around his Gallery situated in the heart of the Pennines, Holmfirth.
Ashley says:
“I am proud to be an Ambassador for the EyUp! charity, supporting the South West Yorkshire communities I know and love.
EyUp! helps to lift people, boost recovery and create memories – from creative activity groups to trips or funding for community groups.
Those who know me will understand I am a passionate believer in the benefits creative activities can bring to people’s lives; for art has been my sanity and sanctuary at different points in my life.
I know that creativity means different things to people, research supports the use of creative activities in healthcare and has been shown to increase self-esteem, provide a sense of purpose, develop social skills, and improve individual’s quality of life. I think this is something we can all benefit from whether it be picking up a paint brush or studying the beauty of the landscape whilst out on a walk, we all need a release from everyday life. Art is inclusive and definitely has ‘all of us in mind.’
I can honestly say that Yorkshire and art have made me who I am so if I can use my experience to inspire others to assist those most in need, creating health and wellbeing, through art, I think we can all say EyUp to that! ”
Horatio Clare
Horatio Clare’s first book, Running for the Hills, is the best-selling story of a Welsh childhood on a remote hill farm; it won the Somerset Maugham award, and was followed by A Single Swallow, which follows the migration of swallows from South Africa to South Wales. Horatio’s next book Down to the Sea in Ships, which won the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year, shares the story of voyages on cargo ships and reveals the largely hidden human story of trade across the oceans.
In 2015, Horatio wrote his first children’s book, Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot; a modern-day fable that mixes real family life with fantastical woodland creatures to tackle the theme of depression. Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot won the Branford Boase Award for best debut children’s book and was followed by Aubrey and the Terrible Ladybirds in 2017, which again tackled challenging themes including environmental damage, migration and relationships.
His next book, Heavy Light, looks at what we know about psychosis and breakdown, how we treat acute mental health crises and how we might best do so in the future.
A broadcaster and journalist, Horatio also writes regularly on travel for the Financial Times and Conde Nast Traveller, and broadcasts on diverse subjects for From Our Own Correspondent on Radio 4, alongside presenting Sound Walks on Radio 3. He further lecturers in nonfiction at the University of Manchester.
Horatio says:
“I am hugely proud to be charity ambassador for EyUp! having myself been treated for an acute mental health crisis in January 2019.
“The care, dedication and skill of the staff and support workers at Fieldhead and throughout South West Yorkshire Parternship NHS Foundation Trust was exemplary and unstinting. My family and I were and are so grateful to them.
“The treatment of the most vulnerable is the measure of a socitey – I am hugely honoured to be part of the work now.”
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