John Ley
I am currently the ringfenced METRO GAD Trustee Board member, and I was the Interim Treasurer from 2023 -2025. I have been a Disabled person all my life and first became involved with GAD (Greenwich Association of Disabled People) now METRO GAD, in the mid-1990s.
I am now retired, but I have worked in industry, the NHS and the voluntary sector (mainly in services for Disabled people) my last role was as a funeral arranger. I was a qualified counsellor and worked for several years in various organisations counselling Disabled people. I have many years’ experience of committee work, from being a student rep on the academic board of my college in my early twenties, to sitting on the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy’s Disability Issues Sub-Committee.
At GAD I started as a volunteer, became a paid project worker and at the end of the project was elected onto the Board of Trustees where I eventually became Chair. I reverted to ordinary Board Member whilst working as a funeral arranger, and in that role worked with the rest of GAD’s Board to secure GAD’s future by merging with METRO in 2019. I am currently Co-Chair of the METRO GAD Management Committee.
When it seemed GAD may have to close down, we tried unsuccessfully to find a local user-led Disability group to merge with. At that time our Treasurer had links with METRO Charity, having been a founder member of Greenwich Lesbian & Gay Centre the organisation that grew into METRO. We soon realised there was a synergy between our organisations. We both worked supporting a marginalised group of people aiming to encourage folk to celebrate and to have pride in their difference. Also, we recognised that we did not always serve well those Disabled people who were also part of the LGBTQ community. We realised that METRO could help GAD with this, and that GAD could support METRO with Disability issues. I believe we have both gained from the merger.
As METRO’s GAD Trustee, I see a closely-linked two-part role:
- firstly: doing all I can to ensure a secure future for METRO and thereby supporting the members and service users of METRO GAD, and
- secondly: bringing METRO GAD’s knowledge and experience to support METRO to better serve their Disabled staff and service users.
I hope to use my interpersonal skills to support the Board and Executive Team, and use my lived Disability experience to enhance the organisation’s EDI work.
When society is seemingly becoming more fragmented, those who are being othered need to come together to find strength in unity. We need to show that the world is a better place when we work together, valuing and celebrating difference, and I believe that by supporting METRO Charity we can improve life for everybody.
