Our EyUp! ambassadors are advocates for our charity. They give their time, energy and support to help us make a proper difference for those people in our services and local communities!
Meet our Ambassadors
With over 15 awards & 11 years hosting the biggest breakfast show outside of London, Stephanie Hirst is one of the UKs most loved broadcasting stars. She’s been a fixture on BBC & Commercial radio during the past 25 years and played at the highest level behind the mic in the UK.
She has also presented for BBC Breakfast, ITV’s Lorraine and is regularly seen on C5’s The Jeremy Vine Show. Written articles for The Independent, The Telegraph & Huffington Post, along with teaming up with Kurt Geiger to promote their brand.
Starting her career aged 12 at Radio Aire in Leeds, securing a slot on the overnight show at 16, this took her on an unbelievable journey hosting some of the biggest commercial radio shows in the UK, including the national Sunday top 40 show ‘Hit40Uk’ for 3 years, along with interviewing some of the world’s biggest stars.
Along with her first love of radio, she now dedicates a huge amount of her time to public speaking, sharing her ‘Believe Achieve’ keynote message.
She is a Trustee & Fellow of the Radio Academy, former Chair of the Student Radio Awards, recipient of an Honorary Degree from Leeds Beckett University & currently broadcasts nationally on Bauer’s ‘Hits Radio’.
More at: www.stephaniehirst.co.uk
Ashley Jackson has had an extremely distinctive and illustrious life in the world of art. Since opening his first gallery in Dodworth back in 1963, he has become one of the country’s leading and most successful landscape watercolourists. His unique evocative and distinctive paintings of brooding moorlands have become synonymous with Yorkshire, and more particular the moors above and around his Gallery situated in the heart of the Pennines, Holmfirth.
Ashley says:
“I am proud to be an Ambassador for the EyUp! charity, supporting the South West Yorkshire communities I know and love.
EyUp! helps to lift people, boost recovery and create memories – from creative activity groups to trips or funding for community groups.
Those who know me will understand I am a passionate believer in the benefits creative activities can bring to people’s lives; for art has been my sanity and sanctuary at different points in my life.
I know that creativity means different things to people, research supports the use of creative activities in healthcare and has been shown to increase self-esteem, provide a sense of purpose, develop social skills, and improve individual’s quality of life. I think this is something we can all benefit from whether it be picking up a paint brush or studying the beauty of the landscape whilst out on a walk, we all need a release from everyday life. Art is inclusive and definitely has ‘all of us in mind.’
I can honestly say that Yorkshire and art have made me who I am so if I can use my experience to inspire others to assist those most in need, creating health and wellbeing, through art, I think we can all say EyUp to that! ”
Horatio Clare’s first book, Running for the Hills, is the best-selling story of a Welsh childhood on a remote hill farm; it won the Somerset Maugham award, and was followed by A Single Swallow, which follows the migration of swallows from South Africa to South Wales. Horatio’s next book Down to the Sea in Ships, which won the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year, shares the story of voyages on cargo ships and reveals the largely hidden human story of trade across the oceans.
In 2015, Horatio wrote his first children’s book, Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot; a modern-day fable that mixes real family life with fantastical woodland creatures to tackle the theme of depression. Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot won the Branford Boase Award for best debut children’s book and was followed by Aubrey and the Terrible Ladybirds in 2017, which again tackled challenging themes including environmental damage, migration and relationships.
His next book, Heavy Light, looks at what we know about psychosis and breakdown, how we treat acute mental health crises and how we might best do so in the future.
A broadcaster and journalist, Horatio also writes regularly on travel for the Financial Times and Conde Nast Traveller, and broadcasts on diverse subjects for From Our Own Correspondent on Radio 4, alongside presenting Sound Walks on Radio 3. He further lecturers in nonfiction at the University of Manchester.
Horatio says:
“I am hugely proud to be charity ambassador for EyUp! having myself been treated for an acute mental health crisis in January 2019.
“The care, dedication and skill of the staff and support workers at Fieldhead and throughout South West Yorkshire Parternship NHS Foundation Trust was exemplary and unstinting. My family and I were and are so grateful to them.
“The treatment of the most vulnerable is the measure of a socitey – I am hugely honoured to be part of the work now.”
