Meet the team

As parents we know only too well how hard it can be to provide our children with all that they need. Our aim is to support local parents to cope with the difficulties they face, by helping them to provide their children with the best possible start to their own lives. We believe that every child has a right to have its basic needs met with dignity.

Shona Campbell, Chair of Trustees

Shona has lived in Sevenoaks since 1996 and was formerly a local women’s running coach. Hundreds of women in the Sevenoaks area were introduced to running by her, and she was co-founder and co-facilitator of the award-winning Up and Running group which was aimed at women suffering from anxiety and depression.

Her contact with Children’s Services began with a Christmas gift campaign supported by the members of her running groups and the wider community, and led her to found Friends for Families with Deborah Griffin in 2018.

Claire Davison, Treasurer

Claire qualified as a chartered accountant back when there were still a “Big 6” of accountancy firms and then worked for Carphone Warehouse as a project manager until her second child was born in 2006, moving to Sevenoaks the following year.

She has had a variety of unpaid roles since then and has been a Governor at Riverhead Infants’ School since 2013. She is also a volunteer for Sevenoaks Welcomes Refugees and Sevenoaks Larder and Treasurer (from June 2021) for Sevenoaks Action Youth Trust. Claire first met Shona doing a beginners' running course and was delighted to be asked to join Friends for Families as a trustee and Treasurer in December 2020.

Kelly Barlow, Trustee

Kelly has over 15 years Investment Banking experience and was lucky enough to spend a few years working in the Sydney office (where she met her husband).  She is currently taking a career break to spend time with her two young children but not one to sit around she is excited to be part of the Friend for Families organisation & looks forward to helping it grow.

Kelly & her husband decided to settle in Sevenoaks after the birth of her second child in 2015. 

Heather Brightwell, Trustee (Grants and Fundraising)

Currently working with the NHS in Sussex, Heather has worked in community development in the social housing and voluntary and community sectors since moving to the Sevenoaks District 18 years ago, and has seen firsthand the local need for the kind of practical support that Friends for Families provides. Heather became a trustee after previously supporting the Christmas appeal. 

Katya Wickham, Trustee (Legal and Fundraising)

Katya grew up in a village near Tunbridge Wells but then moved around the country and settled in Sevenoaks with her young family in 2016. She worked as a corporate and commercial solicitor until she got married but then decided to channel her desire to help others into the charity sector. She has worked for a children’s mental health charity and is currently working for a global disability charity as a fundraiser. 

She has two primary aged children and has been involved with the local Beaver Scout and Cub Scout groups, and used to host a weekly ‘Forest Tots’ playgroup for Sevenoaks Kindergarten. She supported the F4F Christmas Appeal for many years and was happy to help when the charity was on the look out for more trustees.