About SASP

Simon Blake OBE joined MHFA England as Chief Executive in October 2018, leading the organisation to achieve its vision of normalising society’s attitudes and behaviours around mental health, through training one in ten of the population in mental health skills and awareness.  As well as Chairing SASP he Chairs the Dying Matters Campaign based at Hospices UK and the Headspace International Advisory Board. He is also a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute. He is a writer, campaigner and trainer and was awarded an OBE for services to the voluntary sector and young people in 2011. He enjoys running, equestrian eventing and his dog.

Fergus is the CEO of Winston’s Wish and joined as Chief Executive in October 2015. He has held several roles in education and children’s services. Fergus believes passionately that with the right support at the right time children who have been bereaved can learn to live with their grief, adjust to the changes that the death of someone close to them inevitably brings, and go on to lead full and flourishing lives. This belief stems not only from his professional understanding but also from his own experience of losing his father to cancer when Fergus was 19.

Lisa Lund has over 20+ years experience working in both corporate and not-for-profit environments, from launching start-ups and charitable organisations to nurturing mature businesses. Lisa founded the National Bereavement Service in 2014, which shares legal knowledge and expertise, providing individuals with unbiased guidance to make the right decisions at times of grief and despair. The NBS also works with a variety of companies and charities and provides employee and customer benefit packages connected with bereavement, such as legal services, funeral planning and dedicated support and counselling helplines.

Jacqui is the Assistant Director for Policy, Practice & Influencing at Samaritans. She is responsible for its policy, public affairs and campaigns work, as well as its award winning media guidelines, work to prevent suicide in high risk locations, its online excellence programme, as well as hosting the National Suicide Prevention Alliance and Support after Suicide Partnership.  She is a member of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group and is passionate about trying to prevent suicide using all levers for change.

Halani Foulsham is the founder of Thought Climber CIC and the creator of the After Journal. She is the Chair of the Board of Trustees for Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide where she has served on the board for 3.5 years. Halani specialises in charity management and governance. Her day-to-day role focuses on income generation and communications at a London based homelessness charity. Outside of her passion for the charity sector, she loves open water swimming and horticulture.

Rosemary is passionate about suicide prevention work and bringing people together to both raise the profile of the issues and collaborate to find solutions. She returned to the NSPA in May 2023, having helped establish the Alliance between 2013 and 2017. Rosemary has a wealth of experience managing projects and programmes in the mental health and suicide prevention spaces and across a range of sectors. Since leaving the NSPA previously, her work has mainly focused on children and young people. This has included addressing youth unemployment by working in partnership with The Prince’s Trust, addressing childhood trauma and working with children whilst at the Anna Freud Centre. Most recently she was managing a student mental health change programme led by UCL’s academic psychology department.

Melina Safari is a Psychologist and Co-Founder of Lingua.GM which is a not-for-profit organisation based in Greater Manchester that supports diverse communities to develop a healthier quality of life through a living well community model. Melina is a licensed CBT and couples therapist and brings extensive experience treating depression, anxiety, trauma and domestic violence, working with BAME communities, refugees and asylum seekers. Melina has over 20 years’ experience in NHS IAPT services across Greater Manchester and will be a valuable asset to the Steering Group as we continue to work together to ensure that everyone bereaved or affected by suicide is offered timely and appropriate support.

Hamish founded the SASP in 2013. He chaired the Partnership until 2021 and, over this time, it has grown from the initial 10 members to over 80. He founded our close collaboration with NHS England to deliver suicide bereavement support in every area of England, by 2024. Hamish is Chair of The Matthew Elvidge Trust, which was formed after his son Matthew took his own life in 2009. The Trust aims to increase everyone’s understanding of the importance of good mental health, how to keep well… and ensure that people who need help receive the right support quickly. Hamish had a 30 career at J Sainsbury PLC and is a member of various national organisations connected with school and university mental health education, suicide prevention and bereavement support. These include the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group, the City Mental Health Alliance Advisory Board, the Mental Health in Higher Education Advisory Group and the Schools’ Wellbeing Partnership.

Angela presented the BBC1 BAFTA nominated and winner of the Mind Media Award for Best Factual TV documentary, ‘Life After Suicide’. The film challenged the stigma of suicide, with Angela sharing her experiences and that of her children after her partner took his own life 14 years ago. The documentary was reshown as part of the BBC’s Mental Health Season #InTheMind and was watched worldwide by over 4.5 million viewers. Angela is uniquely qualified to represent the views of those bereaved by suicide and was for 4 years as Chair and is now Ambassador, of the Survivors of the Bereaved by Suicide. Under her Chairmanship the number of support groups doubled, offering support to over 7,000 people bereaved by suicide each year. Angela is also an invited attendee of the All-Party Parliamentary Group looking at Suicide Prevention in England and Wales. Her charity work, together with the making of the documentary was recognised as Angela was named as the Merseyside Woman of the Year 2015. As a freelance Arts professional for over a decade, Angela continues to work with individual artists and arts organisations, while also speaking publicly about mental health issues. Often her work in Mental Health and the Arts come together and in 2018 she will complete a Winston Churchill Fellowship looking at both disciplines.

Barry is a Cognitive Therapist and is the 2016 winner of the American Association of Suicidology,  Roger J Tierney Award for services in suicide prevention. He was the Suicide Awareness Co-ordinator in the Western Health & Social Care Trust. Barry has worked globally to improve suicide prevention services. He was instrumental in bringing the ASIST and Safetalk programmes to the UK and Ireland. He is a Senior Coaching Trainer with Living Works Incorporated and delivers ASIST Training for Trainers. The current service in the Western Trust has been recognised as a model that should be replicated throughout the UK. Barry is a member of the Scottish Executive’s Research Expert Group on Suicidal Behaviour, a former Director of the Board of the Irish Association of Suicidology, and a member of the American Association of Suicidology. He was the Chairperson of Youthlife. In 2013, Barry was appointed to the Executive Committee of The National Suicide Research Foundation (Ireland).

Dr Alexandra Pitman is an Associate Professor in Psychiatry in the UCL Division of Psychiatry and an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust. Her research interests are in the epidemiology of suicide and self-harm, and preventing suicide. She conducted a national survey of people bereaved by suicide, which found that people bereaved by suicide are at greater risk of suicide attempt than people bereaved by other sudden deaths, and significantly more likely to perceive stigma and a lack of informal support. She co-leads the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)-funded Loneliness and Social Isolation in Mental Health research network. She was a member of PHE's Expert Reference Group on suicide bereavement and contributed to the 2017 PHE publication 'Support after a suicide: a guide to providing local services.' She has been widely funded to conduct research into the impact of bereavement.  

Michelle Stebbings joined us in March 2020 as the new Executive Lead for SASP. Michelle has a wealth of experience in the charity sector having worked in a variety of outreach, engagement and programme management roles at Tourettes Action, Diabetes UK and PAPYRUS. Michelle's most recent role was with Gambling with Lives where she was responsible for developing and growing a family support service for people bereaved by gambling related suicide.

Richa joined the team in June 2023, she has worked in the charity sector for several years now, having worked in frontline Psychology roles since finishing university. She initially worked within international development (through education and health programmes) before working in a range of mental health charities and most recently in the Rail team at Samaritans. Richa leads our work with NHS England to provide suicide bereavement support in every area of the country; co-ordinating our Central Hub, driving the development of services, and providing bespoke support to STPs.

PJ joined the team in July 2023, having previously worked at Grassroots Suicide Prevention and IAPT service We Are With You, primarily in administrative roles, and he is also a listening volunteer with Samaritans. He has previous training experience and academically, he has background in psychology and is currently studying counselling.