I don’t think we ever say “thank you” enough. So last week we did just that at Headway Cambridgeshire, a unique rehabilitation centre for adults with an acquired brain injury.

It’s always hard singling people out for praise when we are fortunate to have so many supporters. As chair of trustees, I particularly wanted to refer to a couple of our founding members whose links with our group go back to our first days 22 years ago, though for very different reasons.

It is a stark reminder about how vulnerable we all are, that any of us could one day suffer a head injury which could transform our lives for ever – just like Peter Durrant. Peter was carrying out his normal working duties on the day of his accident. In his role as a social worker, he was accompanying a mentally ill patient to Fulbourn Hospital in a car driven by a police officer when a terrible crash happened and he sustained a serious head injury. His wife Sarah, also a social worker, was unable to find the much needed support she felt she needed for either Peter or their family, and so she set up a committee to start one and invited a friend, Maurice Reynolds, to join them.

That is how Headway Cambridgeshire started 22 years ago. I met Peter for the first time this year when he brought a cheque in for us. His son had married and he and his wife asked guests to give donations to our charity instead of buying gifts. That kind of selflessness is so rare.

More than two decades later, Maurice is still with us as a much loved volunteer and his dedication was rewarded when he won a national Headway UK Volunteer of the Year award a couple of years ago.

As well as singling Peter and Maurice out for special thanks, I also thanked our two patrons, John Hayes MP, a government minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning who suffered a serious head injury in his 20s and today raises funds for our charity (he was awarded with a Parliamentary Charity Champion of the Year for his support), and Prof John Pickard, one of the top neuro-surgeons in the UK, if not the world. Although they could not join us during the evening, I hope their ears were burning when I thanked them for their patronage.

Our success today could not have been possible without our two fabulous and very hard working former CEOs, Kate Lewis and Andrew Gardner, and as a result, our services have extended throughout the county and gone from strength to strength. Our new CEO Mary Goode has only been with us two months, but she has really hit the ground running and we both share exciting visions for the future of Headway in Cambridgeshire.

Neither would our success have been possible without the commitment and dedication from Headway’s staff and trustees – thank you all again!!!