Staff and Trustees

Canon Samuels retired after a 40-year ministry as an Anglican priest, latterly delivered as a much-loved vicar of St Mary Outwith the Walls, Chester. He spent thereafter, a very active decade successfully leading the Trustees of the Charity before retiring as Chair in September 2017. One-time Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Kings School, Chester, he is actively involved with Adoption Matters (North West) and is National Chaplain for the Dunkirk Veterans. Chris was appointed Chaplain to the Queen in 2000. He remains continually active in preaching and is in regular demand for preaching and services. He is also very active in the Rotary Club of Chester and is a Paul Harris Fellow. Chris has been involved with CID since 1989 initially in a very practical way collecting goods and leading lorry convoys of aid, to where the need was greatest in Eastern Europe. He became part of the Children in Distress family of support in 1994. He and his wife Sarah have devotedly redeveloped their present home on the outskirts of Chester, which also houses Sarah's renowned art gallery and art sales e-business.

Neil started his career with Rolls-Royce in Hillington, Glasgow in Sept 1965 and was given a position in the Quality Control area with specific accountability for looking after suppliers and sub-contractors. In 2003 after some 38 years he retired but realised very quickly that he still had a lot to offer through his knowledge and experience working across many countries and cultures. He started volunteering with The Prince and Princess of Wales hospice, when he met Alisdair Barron former CEO of Children in Distress. He realised that his grounding in Engineering and Quality control could help as he took on roles such as Governance, Procedures and Policies, a role he continues to hold to this day. He has always been impressed with the desire and professionalism of the team in Romania and the volunteers who dedicate their time and effort to help those who need it most. We are very proud to have him as part of our team.

John has been happily married for thirty years to Jenny and they have three married children and five grandchildren. He and his wife live high on the North Yorkshire Moors, and both celebrated their 70th birthdays last year. John ran his own business and was then involved with the Probation Service before joining a national organisation helping provide specially adapted independent living accommodation for those with special needs. He retired, some seven years ago, as the organisation’s National Development Manager, responsible for commissioning new services across England. Amongst other things, these days he and his wife are active in their local independent fellowship, where John chairs the Board of Trustees. For over sixty years, boy and man, John has been active in the Boy’s Brigade and still attends BB camps and weekends away where he runs the cookhouse.

Dr Robin Dunn qualified and trained Cambridge and St Bart’s Hospital, London followed by a challenging and interesting appointment as Medical Officer in the Solomon Islands where as well as managing the Malaria eradication programme he delivered comprehensive medical care throughout the dependency. This experience inspired his move into general practice. GP training at Oxford lead to practical training in Didcot and a career long partnership in a practice in Hungerford from which he recently retired. An inspirational meeting in 1993 with the Children in Distress’s Founding Director led to an initial visit to St Laurence Hospice in Cernavoda and a life changing experience of both Robin and his wife Anna. Robin and Anna have been an integral part of the growth and development of Children in Distress and its mission of care since then. As a chair of the charity’s Advisory Group, he helped introduce medical audit visits and continues to promote the highest standards of medical treatment and care, in all of CID’s projects and partnership programmes. Having worked at St Thomas’s, CID’s hospice in Slobozia over many years, he continued contact and support when it was transferred to the Fundatia Paraschiva Cuvioasa and today he chairs their UK support charity. Now ‘retired’, Robin is one of the longest serving Trustees of Children in Distress and each year fits in a series of advisory audit visits. He has worked as a volunteer doctor for ‘ACCROSS’, which using ambulances assists pilgrimages across Europe for the frail, sick and disabled. He is a local community councillor a fundraiser for the rebuilding of his own local parish church and active in ‘Hungerford Churches Together’. Over the years, he has inspired and organised the Hungerford Big Wheel Bike ride for Children in Distress and fundraises widely for children in Slobozia.

June Hurn, one of the charity's active and long-term supporters and trustees, was born in the United States, however, has spent most of her life and career in the UK. A teacher and lecturer in physical education, June also qualified as a remedial gymnast and spent twenty years working with children with special educational needs. Now a priest in holy orders, June is part of the ministry team of St Nicholas's Parish, Chislehurst in Kent, she is a governor of both the local Marjory McClure a specialised school for physical development, and a primary school in a deprived area of Bromley. June was an equestrian of note and for thirty years has been active in the Riding for the Disabled Association. June is a loving mother (4) and doting grandmother (8) and enjoys a very active life together with her husband Bruce, a popular and talented artist who generously promotes and supports Children in Distress through the sale of his paintings.