Ex-Trustee, Claudine, runs the Athens Marathon for ASC

I write these words five days after my participation in the ‘Authentic’ Marathon to Athens marathon, thanks to which I managed to raise more than £1500 for Action for Stammering Children (ASC), a great charity for which I was a trustee until a few months ago.

Coming, as I did, from the French-speaking part of Canada, where the tradition of charities is not as developed as in the UK, I joined ASC more or less by accident in 2009. As someone with a stammer myself, I was obviously attracted by ASC’s mission to enable “every child and young person across the UK who stammers to have access to effective services and support to help them meet the challenges created by their stammer and fulfill their potential”. However, as time went by, I realised that I was also very attracted by the idea of trustees as such, the responsibilities that come with the role, and the feeling of contributing to one’s community.

Of course, being a trustee requires a non-negligible commitment in terms of time and intellectual engagement. There are board meetings to attend, sub-committees to help with, documents to read, fundraising events to organise, etc. However, these can also be seen as opportunities to develop different skill sets and my day-to-day job has undoubtedly benefited from my becoming a trustee.

But, at the end of the day, being a trustee is about meeting fantastic people and learning from them. In particular, in the context of Action for Stammering Children, this has been about meeting all those great children and young people whose dreams may have been thwarted by their stammer and giving them the chance to re-ignite them by ensuring, among other things, that the charity is carrying out its purposes for the public benefit and that its resources are managed responsibly.

And, if only for that, being a trustee of ASC will have turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

Claudine Provencher
ASC Trustee 2009-2018