Meet Our Board of Trustees
At The Sussex Beacon, our Board of Trustees plays a vital role in guiding our vision, strategy, and values. Each trustee brings a wealth of experience, insight, and personal commitment to supporting people living with HIV and helping us deliver inclusive, compassionate care to the LGBTQ+ community and beyond.
From finance and healthcare to charity leadership and frontline volunteering, our trustees offer expertise shaped by decades of professional and personal dedication. Their combined knowledge helps ensure we remain responsive to the needs of our community today, while planning confidently for tomorrow.
We’re proud to introduce the individuals behind the scenes who are helping to shape the future of The Sussex Beacon.
Paul Hilly
In August 2022, Paul was appointed Chair of the Board of Trustees at The Sussex Beacon, after joining the board as a trustee in November 2017. He has had a successful career in finance, having worked as a financial analyst for BNY Mellon and in the fashion retail and wholesale industries for brands including Louis Vuitton, Loewe, Alberta Ferretti, and Moschino.
Paul started volunteering at the London Lighthouse, the centre for people with HIV/AIDS in the early 1990s, in the residential unit and remained a volunteer there until it closed. He also worked with the charity Crusaid, which provided financial assistance during the AIDS epidemic to institutions affected by and to people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.
Paul regards this voluntary role as an ideal opportunity to contribute his time and expertise at The Sussex Beacon, completing the circle of his dedication to those living with HIV.
Dr Richard Ma
With more than 20 years of experience as a GP and working in sexual and reproductive health practice, Dr Ma is also a researcher at Imperial College London. His work includes publishing research on experiences of people living with HIV (PLWH) in general practice. Due to a number of people living with HIV being on his practice list, he is aware first hand of the specific challenges they face daily, particularly navigating the health and social care systems. Dr Ma stresses that whilst there is highly effective anti-retroviral treatment available, enabling the majority of people living with HIV to have similar life expectancies compared with those not living with HIV, the challenge now is managing other conditions that develop as people grow older. These include heart disease, cancer, and other ailments due to advancing years.
In addition to his work as a Trustee, Dr Ma is a keen runner and has run in the Brighton Half Marathon on a number of occasions.
Dr Sonia Raffe
Dr. Raffe is a Consultant in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine at the Lawson Unit, part of the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.
With extensive clinical expertise, Dr. Raffe works across all areas of Genitourinary Medicine but specialises in HIV inpatient care, HIV/TB co-infection and renal disease in people living with HIV. As an alumnus of the Darzi Fellowship programme, Dr Raffe is interested in quality improvement and service development and is currently working with NHS Sussex to improve access to cardiovascular disease prevention interventions for those living with HIV.
Jason Palmer
Born and raised in Sussex, Jason’s professional background includes working as a senior civil servant, in addition to roles in customer services, retail and the charity sector.
In 2007, he joined the Sussex Heart Charity (SHC) as a volunteer advisor to the Board of Trustees. Jason subsequently became a volunteer Director and Trustee, then Vice Chair and finally stepping up to the role of Chair in 2020. Since July 2023, Jason has also worked part-time within the fundraising team for Family Support Work (FSW), a Brighton-based charity established in 1890 to help Sussex based families in crisis.
On a personal note, having trained for 12 months, Jason marked a milestone birthday by trekking on foot for three weeks in the Nepalese Valleys, reaching Everest Base Camp (17,600 ft), during which he also raised funds for charities close to his heart.
Ian Wilson
Now retired, Ian Wilson’s career history includes 35 years working in healthcare, including 27 years as a registered mental health nurse. Most of this time was spent working in the NHS, within a variety of sectors including Learning Disabilities, Substance Misuse Services and Forensic Mental Health.
Ian also has experience of commissioning health services, including posts where he was responsible for oversight of quality within healthcare services across Sussex. He also worked as a nurse for 4 years in the 1990s, in a specialist voluntary sector HIV residential service called the Griffin Project in London.
We would like to thank all of our trustees for their time, commitment and efforts, supporting The Sussex Beacon.
