Eastern Governors
Our Eastern Governors represent East Devon, Dorset, Somerset, and the Rest of England.
Fred Caygill
Fred was elected as a public governor in September 2024 for a term of three years.
Born in Exmouth, Fred has had a varied career serving with the British Army for eight years. He worked for 16 years in the Civil Service for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, coordinating search and rescue for five years, as a press and public relations officer for nine years and two years as a sector officer. He then went on to work for the South West Ambulance Service Trust for four years in resilience and logistics before giving up work to care for his wife, who has now sadly passed away suffering with vascular dementia.
Fred is an elected councillor with Exmouth Town Council. He also volunteers as an ambassador for Dementia UK, a carers ambassador for Devon Carers and is currently Chair of the Exmouth Imperial Surgery Practice Patient Group.
Sarah Hughes
Sarah was elected as a public governor in September 2024 for a term of two years and re-elected in September 2026 for a three-year term.
Sarah worked extensively in Somerset although now lives in Devon where she is a trustee of Ottery Help Scheme, which supports over 500 vulnerable people. Her career started as a nurse at Guy’s Hospital, and then moved into teaching drama specializing in special educational needs. She worked for SCC as the Volunteer Service manager and as an Adult Advice and Guidance tutor working with vulnerable and hard to reach groups. She set up The Village Agent Scheme whose strapline is `Prevention is better than cure’. Sarah has an MA Professional Certificate in Guidance and Group work and received an NHS award for `Prescriptions for Learning`. Whilst acting as a Family Magistrate, she was inspired to set up the `Pause` project to improve the lives of women who are at risk or have had children taken into care.
Sarah is dedicated to working within communities to empower and enable.