WIGO’s Co-Founders
Angela Catley and Sian Lockwood are two friends and ex-colleagues working together to try to influence an issue we care deeply about. We know we are all getting older, and our lives and the lives of the people we care about are changing as a result – sometimes gloriously for the better, sometimes worryingly for the worst…..and most often somewhere in the middle.
We two have long careers and lots of experience in the world of care and support with a shared passion for people and communities and making the most of everything that’s strong. Alongside these professional journeys are personal journeys and in recent years, for us both, these two strands of life have merged, blurred and interacted. I think we have always been aware of the tiny range of social care and support services available to older people – things like care homes, home care and day centers. We have probably also been conscious of the view, baked into much of our society, that if we become ‘frail’ or ‘vulnerable’ or ‘lack capacity’ then it is really inevitable that we ‘go into a home’ or get ‘4 calls a day’. Our lives of wisdom, relationships, doing and giving becoming lives of passivity, disconnection, time filling ‘activities’ and ‘needs’……..unquestioned, inevitable. Perhaps, until now, we have never really given that full scrutiny it deserves or stopped to question the implications for us, the people we care about and society as a whole.
As older people/people thinking about getting older, we personally view many of the supports and services currently available for older people with dread. Acting together, we are potentially a huge force for change – but only if we are clear now about the services and supports we want when the time comes for us to need it. So, we are opening a space for conversations and positive disruption. We want your help to create a movement for much greater choice.
We have the power to change things for the better… but first we need to come together.
#WhenIGetOld
Our Trustees
WIGO became a charity in July 2025. Sian Lockwood (one of the co-founders) is currently Chair of the Board and we have been fortunate in attracting some wonderful new trustees. We’ve given some information about them and why they wanted to become WIGO trustees below:
Mary Reed
Mary is the CEO of the Wiltshire Centre For Independent Living (Wiltshire CIL). The Wiltshire CIL is working to ensure that people are able to live a good life of their choosing in welcoming communities. Mary had a number of different roles within the CIL before being appointed CEO 3 years ago. She started as their Development Officer in 2014 before being appointed Business Development Manager in 2016.
Mary has a background in research, working for the University of Exeter as Associate Research Fellow from 2012 to 2013 and as a researcher for the University of Bath from 2004 to 2010.
Mary says:
I am not someone looking for more to do – already have a day job and a busy home life. However, I just instantly loved what WIGO was about and what it’s trying to achieve. Before joining Wiltshire CIL I was a researcher and my research centred on older people living life well. My first research job was visiting lots of residential homes and trying very hard to sign people up to take part in a Falls Prevention research trial (often misheard as Fools) and I remember many, many large rooms with Older people marooned in chairs arranged around the edge of vast empty spaces, the television on loud and people just looking very bored or a bit sad. One thing someone said to me has remained in my mind forever; I asked a man what he looked forward to in his future and his answer: ‘I am just in a waiting room for god’. This work made me pretty fired up about changing the future picture for all of us as we grow old. I want to still feel valuable, have purpose, to be able to give and receive love. I still want to feel powerful and present. Talking with Sian and Angela gave me hope and excitement that this future was possible and we could be makers of our own destiny. I am very happy and proud to be part of this movement for change and have role in it. Can’t wait to see where it takes us all, I personally am happy to be a foot soldier in the revolution!
Dr Mervyn Eastman
Mervyn has spent over forty years in and around Social Care and following his retirement as a Director of Social Services led the Government’s Better Government for Older People Programme. In 2010 he co formed Change AGEnts an older adults multi stakeholder Co-operative. Presently he is one of the Directors of the Later Life Audio and Radio Co-operative, and Chair of the Third Sector Safeguarding Network (UK).
Author and writer he has challenged both civic and civil society with regard to ageism and especially “compassionate ageism”, but includes older adults themselves. He continues his work of over 30 years in the area of social care and especially focused on older adult issues.
Mervyn says:
There are numerous age sector organisations which, to a greater or lesser extent, engage directly with older adults. Some claim to be the ‘voice of older people’, others are rooted in paternalistic and patronising responses to needs and vulnerability. The presumption is too frequently based on a dependency, sickness and deficit model.
WIGO does not. The appeal of engaging through Trusteeship lies in the fact that the motivation is demonstrated in how Sian and Angela view age and ageing, not by claiming to be the voice or representatives of older adults, but by supporting the ambition, contributions, and lived experiences of those of us in our later years. Those of us who see these years as challenging (societal attitudes) also see the adventure of old age, and through sharing our experiences of both ageing and being an older person, we can shift the narrative towards one of challenging the challenges.
I want to be part of the journey, not as a bystander and cheerleader of WIGO, but helping to drive, shape and influence that journey in the company of those who see WIGO as a Movement.
Julie Stansfield
Julie has over 30 years experience in health and social care sectors. Julie studied at Huddersfield university business, management and leadership with a strong particular focus on managing change. She was able to put theory into practice, managing considerable change in social and health care commissioning and provider arrangements, covering a variety of disability and health sectors and organisations.
Julie is rooted in her passion for inclusion and enabling people to have the support they need to lead an ordinary life.
In 2003 she was the co founder of the national charity “In Control Partnerships”, which instigated self directed support and the personalisation agenda in health and social care policy and practice. Enabling people and their families to be more in control of their health and social care provision.
In 2020 she founded the “Be Human” movement encouraging the concentration of 7 key principles she developed and is one of the convenors’ of “Social Care Future”
Julie received the People’s honour British Citizen Award in January 2023.
Julie says:
I started my working life as a YTS (Youth Training Scheme) in an old people’s home. The shock of that at the tender age of 17 has stayed with me for life! I became a manager of a care home by the time I was 19 and was adamant people wouldn’t just sit just waiting to die, they didn’t! they taught me lots and we made some serious changes!
As I moved forward (a bit like educating Rita) I studied hard in how we might change the systems that I had experienced and work towards a real inclusive society. I have spent nearly 30 years agitating, managing, innovating change in the health and social care sector whilst always keeping my feet firmly on the ground and listening carefully to people, friends and family who draw on support (from statutory services or family/friends/community).
I support my parents to continue to thrive rather than survive old age and am passionate about Wigo’s dream of a world where older people, especially those of us who need a bit more help than we did, can continue living adventurous and fulfilled lives. Where we are valued for all we have experienced and learned. Where everything that we know and are good at can still be shared and useful. And where, when we do need help, we get it in the right way and at the right time so that we can carry on giving, living, and loving.