Damian joined the board in May 2021. Damian has a long career in IT services in a variety of roles, in particular developing teams internationally to deliver global services to enterprise customers.  He has extensive experience in IT Outsourcing primarily gained in leadership roles.  Damian volunteered for Alopecia UK for 4 years before joining the board, supporting at events, conferences, support groups and providing peer support. 

"I started to lose my hair at around the age of 6, with patchy Alopecia Areata coming and going and getting progressively worse.  As a teenager I continued to lose my hair and eventually, at around 17, I shaved my head completely.  In my early 20’s my Alopecia evolved to Alopecia Universalis and that remains the case today.

As a boy and young man losing my hair, it was very difficult because there was nowhere to go for support.  My family were fantastic but Alopecia UK didn’t exist and the healthcare system didn’t offer a great deal of support.  Having Alopecia made me a target for bullies and it took me a long time to be comfortable with who I am and that Alopecia is a part of me. 

Many years on I was sitting in a coffee shop when a boy with Alopecia walked by and could not take his eyes off me, I guess because he’d never seen anyone like him.  That’s when I reached out to Alopecia UK as I realised that I have real life experience than can support and help others going through what I went through as a child and teenager.  It’s important to me that others benefit from my experience"