Team

In addition to the day-to-day team, FYF has the support of five Trustees who bring with them a wealth of business expertise.

We’re a friendly bunch here at FYF, each as dedicated as the last and not that we’re biased at all, but we definitely have the best team in the world. Read on to find out who we are and what we do.

Callum Deboys

Callum Deboys was involved in a very serious road traffic collision whilst travelling to work in June 2017. Callum had broken both legs, ruptured his diaphragm and sustained various other serious injuries. The bone in his left leg had broken so badly that it had severed an artery, which resulted in an above knee amputation. Following a long recovery, he wanted to take his life in a new direction. This is when Callum discovered para-rowing, attending Strathclyde Rowing Club’s training sessions multiple times a week. Seeking inspiration from the Paralympics in Pyeongchang 2018, he was given the opportunity to try cross country skiing with the Armed Forces Para-Snowsport Team (AFPST). He then decided to make the move and go full time Para-Nordic Sit Skier for GB competing in both Cross Country and Biathlon. Callum has competed in Canada, Norway and Germany in World Championship races and aims to make the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics.

Check out Callum’s first blog about how his training has been through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Brian Murray

Brian lost his leg when he was 11 years old due to a tumour in his knee. In 2015 he started playing amputee football with Everton amputees and gained a new found confidence. In early 2016 he and the Everton players organised a taster session at Annan Athletic where they met Cor, and some of team FYF and from this, they pushed the game further in Scotland in partnership with the Partick Thistle foundation. Brian has since gone on to Captain Partick Thistle and Scotland in competitive games, travelling to Ireland, Holland and Italy to play for Scotland. He has been married for 27 years to Valerie who has also recently become a Below Knee Amputee and Brian says with his experience he will help her as much as possible to regain her strength and walk again.

Check out Brian’s first blog about his massive challenge before the Covid-19 pandemic, and how he’s been getting on since.

Martin Perry

Martin Perry is from Paisley, 24 years old, and was born with one limb. No hands and almost half of his left leg were missing at birth. The condition is known as congenital limb loss/deformity. He has been active and sporty his entire life and played a variety of sports including football, basketball, rugby and athletics before finding table tennis. After being inspired by the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Martin made the decision to give everything he had to the sport. He is now living and training in Sheffield aiming to represent Paralympics GB at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Check out Martin’s first blog about his journey from being born with no hands and one leg, to living his best life and competing for the GB Paralympics Table Tennis Team.

Hope Gordon

Hope Gordon was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) following years of pain in her left leg. When the leg stopped working and started restricting her sport ambitions, Hope courageously crowdfunded for surgery and had the leg amputated in 2016. Hope was a member of the Scottish swimming team from 2010 until 2018, competing at national and international level competitions. She went on to try canoeing and was then invited to train full time with the GB para canoe team. She decided to call it a day on competitive swimming and relocated to Nottingham to commit 100% to Paracanoe and hopes to take the sport as far as she possibly can. In 2018 Hope graduated with a 2.1 Honours degree in Sport and Exercise Science from Edinburgh Napier University.

Check out GB Team Paralympic Rower Hope’s first blog about her battle with chronic pain in her leg which led Hope to choose amputation and how she’s been getting on since.

Adam Donnachie

Adam Donnachie was born with amniotic band syndrome, which left both of his legs being underdeveloped. This led to minor amputations at 9 months old in 2001. He is a left leg below-the-knee and right leg through-the-knee amputee. He received his first prosthetics at two years old and his sporting journey began in 2007 after learning to swim in 1-on-1 lessons. This progressed quickly, joining his first club and starting to compete at 9 years old when he joined the Scottish Para Junior swimming squad. He made his first appearance for Scotland in Sheffield in 2012 and continued to do so until 2018. In that time, he broke multiple Breaststroke and Freestyle Scottish Records and won two Senior Medals. In 2016 he started playing Wheelchair Basketball and represented Scotland for 3 years at junior level, winning medals with the team. In 2020 he began a Sport Studies degree at Stirling University which saw him move to Stirling. In 2021 He started Athletics doing seated throws where he quickly rose to Scottish and UK number one, gaining his international Classification, Scottish and British titles and competing at the Wanda Diamond League as part of Team Scotland Achieve Programme. His goal is to represent Scotland or Great Britain at major Championships.

Davy Hutton

Davy is the Founder and Director of Quicksale Property Auctions, a unique estate agency and property auction company which deals with a range of hard-to-sell and quirky properties. He has become a leading voice in the industry in Scotland and is regularly invited to speak at events across the country as well as being a recognisable voice on the radio. Despite being Director of the company, Davy sees each property personally and often helps clients not only with the selling of their property but also overall finance management and personal guidance.

In 2003, Davy purchased Law Castle in West Kilbride. The Castle is a fifteenth century building which he restored and renovated to become one of Scotland’s most historic holiday homes which facilitates weddings and events and increases tourism in the local area. Prior to Quicksale and Law Castle, Davy owned and operated the successful Howwood Inn pub. He is considered one of Scotland’s successful entrepreneurs, and mentors many others on the rise.

Davy is Cor’s brother, and was instrumental in both her recovery and the formation of Finding Your Feet. As well as general business expertise and contacts, Davy contributes significantly to the strategic evolution and day-to-day running of the charity and is an active voice to raise awareness and draw attention to it’s mission.

Charles Afuakwah

BDS (Glasg.), MSc (Dent Sci), MJDF (RCS Eng)

Chas qualified as a dentist from the University of Glasgow in 1989 and has since become partner in a family dental practice in Port Glasgow where he has held the position of Principal Dentist and sole owner in the practice since 1991. Throughout his life Chas has been a keen rugby union player and served as President of Glasgow Hawks rugby club.

Chas was inspired to help FYF after being amazed at Cor’s resilience in the face of her adversity following her quadruple amputation in 2013. He became a Trustee when the charity was founded, and has been overwhelmed by the way Cor has used her circumstances to effect positive change in the way amputees are viewed by society.

Scott Hutton

Scott is a partner at Middle East law firm, EKP. He practices in construction and commercial property law and is based in Dubai. He also deals with all property related matters including sales, purchases, landlord and tenant and investment legal issues.

Scott qualified in Scotland and has since worked in Ireland and Dubai. His practice takes him across the Middle East but home is now Dubai where he lives with his wife Emma and two boys.

Scott lectures on property matters at the Dubai Real Estate Institute and sits on the Independent Governance Committee (IGC) for the Responsible Sourcing of Gold and Precious Metals in DMCC, which accounts for approximately 25% of global gold trade.

He was recommended by the Legal 500 for “attention to detail, in-depth knowledge of the applicable laws and interpretation of the law’s application in the commercial environment of Dubai.” He was also named a “rising star” in the 2nd Edition of the “Guide to the World’s Leading Construction Lawyers.” He was also a keen rugby player and is a former captain of Glasgow Hawks RFC and Old Belvedere RFC (Dublin).

Scott is also Cor’s younger brother and was instrumental in setting up Finding Your Feet and supporting Cor with her recovery. Scott provides the charity with invaluable legal advice as well as strategic direction.

Jan Cerretti

Jan has worked in media for a number of years now. Her role at her current agency, Republic of Media, is Broadcast Account Director where she works across a wide variety of clients and manages the Broadcast Department. On a day to day basis Jan recommends Broadcast strategies/manages campaigns on TV, BVOD and Cinema for clients such as The Scottish Government, Drumond Park Board Games, SAMH, Velux, Air Transat and Boe Gin.

When she’s not being a busy mum to her 4 kids Jan runs a non-profit making ‘movement and music class’ for kids with disabilities called Jazzy Movers. She also volunteers for Finding Your Feet sharing information to amputees across the UK, helping out as an administrator in our social media groups as well as volunteering at some clubs. Her daughter, Keeley, was one of our first Junior Troopers, meaning Jan has felt the benefits of the work that Finding Your Feet does and is in a perfect position to raise awareness and spread the word. She is also a great source of information to guide our work with young amputees.

Christine Skinner

Christine Skinner is a retired Senior Lecturer in Podiatry. Her career spanned a number of years at Glasgow Caledonian University where she led programmes in Podiatry at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Her teaching and research interests focused on Diabetic Foot Disease where her key achievements included lead involvement in establishing the Scotland’s first multi-disciplinary Diabetic Foot Clinic at (the now) Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow as well as numerous research and consultancy projects for educational institutions and the World Health Organisation across the Middle East and Asia.

Christine maintains an active interest in her medical field and has continued her involvement with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow where she has held a number of offices during her career. In testament to her standing and commitment Christine was elected Dean Elect to the Faculty in 2019 and in June 2020 she took on the prestigious role of Dean.

Christine has volunteered for the charity for many years. She has worked with Troopers both individually and in a group setting to provide advice on foot care and Podiatry in general. Her wealth of contacts and expertise in a medical field with clear links to amputees is hugely beneficial for the charity, and she is a guiding voice on our medical related campaigns and initiatives.

Cor Hutton

Cor lost her hands and feet to sepsis back in 2013 and set up our charity to offer peer support to amputees in all stages of their life and journey. She can be found spreading the word about FYF and visiting new Troopers. Cor also meets with health, education and NHS personnel, and is a motivational speaker. Despite being a triathlete and world record holder, when it comes to making tea or coffee she’s quick to play the ‘amputee’ card…

info@findingyourfeet.net

Nicola Booth

Nic keeps everything running at Finding Your Feet – the team regularly receive emails from her at 4 am… She’s in charge of strategic planning, oversees the day-to-day running of our charity and is the point of contact for initial enquiries. The only time she stops working is to have a laughing fit at her favourite joke: “What’s Cor short for? Cos she’s got no legs!”

nicola@findingyourfeet.net

Kerr Ferguson

Kerr handles the marketing, PR and design for the charity. He spends a lot of his time photographing and videoing the amputees we work with and telling their inspirational stories. Despite almost always being dressed in grey, he’s actually a very cheery person… mostly. He also wrote these bios so the rest of the team currently aren’t speaking to him. You can clearly see him laughing at his own jokes in that picture.

kerr@findingyourfeet.net

Nikki Etheridge

Nikki began volunteering with Finding Your Feet when she lost her leg below the knee, but she has since grown to be an invaluable member of staff. She’s an integral member of our Well-being Team, as well as helping Nic with some top-level project management. She loves Daim bars but she won’t share them with anyone, not even Meg. Meg is her leg. Yeah she named her prosthetic leg – what’s strange about that?

nikki@findingyourfeet.net

Lesley Lawrie

Les is a below-knee amputee who volunteered for the charity before coming onboard. She’s based in Fife, and as well as playing a key role in our Well-being Team, she coordinates clubs and supports Troopers across all our areas too. She’s also the one that keeps our website all shiny and up to date, manages our private online groups for amputees and helps Troopers with any tech issues they have. When she’s not working on all of that, she’s kept busy having to explain her Fife slang to the rest of the group. Who is this Ken she always speaks of?

lesley@findingyourfeet.net

Paul Johnson

After benefitting from Finding Your Feet’s support, Paul joined the team. He’s a double above-knee amputee and uses his experience to talk at schools, businesses and events. When he’s not out spreading the word, he’s one half of the FYF marketing department, handling social media and design. He’s right into his tunes and doesn’t hide the fact that he thinks the songs that the rest of us like are terrible even though it’s widely agreed he has the worst taste in music…

paul@findingyourfeet.net

Eilish McNaught

Eilish came on board on an internship, right before the Covid pandemic hit – which meant we barely had a chance to say hi before we said goodbye. Thankfully we managed to bring her back as part of the team to coordinate our fundraising activities. She’s planned some brilliant fundraisers and she can be very persuasive… so get ready to be roped into them. In other news, she’s a bit obsessed with Harry Potter. She’s one of those people who are convinced they are a Gryffindor. We don’t have the heart to tell her she’s a classic Hufflepuff.

eilish@findingyourfeet.net

Dawn Hogg

Dawn is our Well-being Officer and came on board to fulfil that much-needed support role alongside our Counsellors. Dawn is also our main Safeguarding contact and has been working in emotional support roles for over 20 years now which makes her a perfect addition to the team. She brings brilliant ideas to the table about new ways to provide support for the FYF Troopers. It’s obvious how lucky we are to have her but we can’t let her know she’s too good for us… shhhh!

dawn@findingyourfeet.net

Joan-Anne Quinn

Joan-Anne wears two hats within the FYF team – firstly she’s our Volunteer Co-ordinator, supporting our volunteers in everything they do for us and our Troopers. She’s also our Day Hub supervisor, handling everything that goes on in the Hub, from bookings to maintenance, and much more. On top of her role with us, she’s always volunteering, supporting and helping people in her spare time. One might say she’s almost too kind… we’ll be keeping an eye on this one…

joan-anne@findingyourfeet.net

Gordon Macdougall

After volunteering as a Peer Supporter and handling check-in calls with Troopers, Gordon was the perfect fit for our Well-being Team. He’s an above-knee amputee and uses his experience to raise the spirit of the amputees he calls and ensures they know we’re there for them. When he’s not chatting to the Troopers, you’ll often find him winding up someone in the team – they probably had it coming – right?