I am relatively new to activism and campaigning. I became involved in the WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) in 2015 and within a week or so I was organising a coach for Devon supporters to attend a national demonstration outside parliament. I’ve found it a joy to use my skills and experience for the benefit of something I feel is really important. One of my great delights in the past seven years is watching women find a collective voice and use it with intelligence and to great effect.
I have been working on ageing issues in Newcastle upon Tyne for 28 years, and have been involved in Better Government for Older People and WHO Age Friendly Communities. I am passionate about older people making an active contribution. I supported the development of the Elders Council of Newcastle which has provided a platform for older people to have a voice for over 20 years.
I am a Trustee with the Bristol Older People’s Forum (BOPF). I have been an activist almost all my adult life mainly on gender and race issues within social work education, training field in Bristol, nationally and internationally. In the last twenty plus years I moved
into health arena providing an independent lay perspective and voice to the governance and strategy on Health Boards in Bristol. Much of my activism around health inequality and desire to get patient views heard started when I was diagnosed with breast cancer aged 40, and that led to me working in partnership with NHS clinicians and cancer charities.
My life as an ‘activist’ has manifested itself over the years in a number of ways, some with a creative twist. From a TGWU (ACTS) trades union rep in a factory from the mid-eighties, to lead singer of an Indie Post-Punk band involved in anti-racism and anti-poll tax protests, as a youth worker and community worker on Bristol’s working-class estates, through to my current role as a political cartoonist for a left-wing tabloid (The Word), and currently, in my professional role as the development manager of the Bristol Older People’s Forum.
Moyra Riseborough runs Riseborough Research and Consultancy Associates (RRCA) in Northumberland. She has a track record for research and consultancy on ageing, housing and community particularly for and with third sector organisations and community led groups. She was until recently Chair of the Workers Educational Association NE Region and was an academic at the University of Birmingham specialising in research on housing, ageing and third sector studies. RRCA was commissioned by Tudor Trust to help Platform 60 develop as an organisation. Moyra and her colleague Adrian Jones worked with the Steering Group from August 2021 to June 2022. Thereafter until joining the Steering Group in May 2023 Moyra donated a couple of days a month of consultancy time to Platform 60.
