Three New Trustees Join The Baton of Hope’s Leadership & Trustees Team

Jayne Walsham, Norson Harris and Andrea Balmer were appointed by the charity to help strengthen our team to raise awareness of suicide and help save lives.

We are delighted to announce that three new Trustees have joined The Baton of Hope’s Leadership & Trustees team.

Jayne Walsham, Norson Harris and Andrea Balmer were appointed as Trustees at the start of 2026 to help strengthen our Leadership team, which has committed to The Baton of Hope’s mission of preventing suicides through campaigning, public education and awareness, a series of pledges and lobbying.

Speaking about the appointments, Mike McCarthy, Chair and Co-Founder of The Baton of Hope, said: “We are immensely proud of our new Trustees who bring a range of skills to the Board and invaluable experience on a number of important levels.”

Jayne was Project Lead for the city of Newcastle during the charity’s 2023 Tour and has also brought the Speak Their Name quilt project to Northumberland. She lost her only child Jodi to suicide in January 2021 and since then has dedicated much of her time in campaigning for a zero-suicide society.

Jayne says: “It is impossible to put into words what it is like to lose an only child to suicide. But I am determined to use my experience to try to prevent others going through the same pain and to prevent others going through what Jodi went through on the road to suicide.”

Norson Harris has spent more than 30 years working at board and executive level in regulated businesses, with a career focused on governance, leadership, and navigating complex change. He has led and advised organisations across financial services, utilities, and public interest bodies, often during periods of transformation and heightened scrutiny.

Alongside his commercial career, Norson has held various roles in the public and charitable sectors, where accountability, judgement, and trust sit at the centre of decision-making.

Through both professional and personal experience, he has seen the impact poor mental health support can have on individuals and families.

Following the suicide of his daughter Ashleigh at 26, Norson is committed to supporting practical, visible action to improve mental health awareness, reduce stigma, and strengthen support where it is needed most.

With over 15 years’ experience in people management, and a further five years developing community mental health services, Andrea is deeply committed to improving mental health, employee wellbeing, and engagement across communities and workplaces.

As lead of a VCSE Mental Health Alliance for Northumberland, Andrea ensures the VCSE voice is represented at a strategic level, shaping community mental health transformation through collaboration, inclusion, and practical, community-led solutions. With experience spanning global corporate environments to partnerships with local and grassroots organisations, bringing a unique ability to connect strategy with real-world impact.