Directors

We welcomed Andy Fletcher as our Chief Executive in November 2024. Before joining us, Andy was Chief Executive for Together for Short Lives, the UK charity for children’s palliative care. There he led significant growth in the charity’s impact and income, extending support for families and professionals, supporting quality improvement in palliative care and successfully advocating for better funding.

He was previously Chief Executive of Longfield, a provider of community hospice care in Gloucestershire, Director of External Affairs at Together for Short Lives and Director of Communications and latterly Joint Chief Executive of the National Childminding Association. A teacher by training, Andy’s career has involved leading strategic development, public affairs and communications in the private and voluntary sectors.

Wojtek is a CIMA qualified management accountant with over 15 years’ experience of working at senior finance roles within the UK charity sector. 

Before joining Muscular Dystrophy UK, Wojtek worked as a Consultant at Counterculture LLP, Executive Director (Finance) at the Prince’s Foundation (Now The King’s Foundation), CFO at The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) , Finance and Operations Director for the Prince’s Foundation for Binding Community (PFBC) and Head of Finance for the British Cardiovascular Society (BCS). 

Wojtek holds a MRes in Cultural Studies at the London University and MA in Slavonic Languages and Culture from Adam Mickiewicz University (UAM). He was also a Trustee of two theatre companies based in London – Blind Summit and Paines Plough. 

Kate joined us in 2018 from the Medical Research Council. Kate has a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge and a degree in Biochemistry from Imperial College London. She worked as a post-doctoral assistant at the University of Basel and in the Department of Diagnostic Imaging at the University Children’s Hospital in Zurich before joining the Wellcome Trust’s Science Funding team in 2005.

More recently, Kate has been a Trustee of the Association of Medical Research Charities (until December 2024) and is currently vice-Chair of the Executive Committee of the European Neuromuscular Centre in The Netherlands.

Alongside working with the research team to ensure that we deliver our research strategy, Kate works closely with the policy team supporting our campaigns so that people are able to access the support and treatments that they want and need.

Emma has worked in the fundraising team at Muscular Dystrophy UK for several years, joining originally as Head of Events. She has always worked in fundraising roles in the charity sector and before joining Muscular Dystrophy UK, Emma was Events Manager at Action on Addiction. She became Director of Development in 2020. 

Leanne joined us in June 2023 and has spent over 17 years in marketing and communication roles in the charity sector. Before joining Muscular Dystrophy UK, Leanne was Head of Marketing and Communications at Bowel Cancer UK and previously held roles at St Elizabeth Hospice, Beat and Save the Children. 

Leanne has been a trustee of the mental health charity Suffolk Mind since April 2019 and is also a research grant lay reviewer and expert panel member for Sarcoma UK having been diagnosed with the disease in March 2021. 

Neeru was appointed Director of Services and Support in January 2025. She joined the charity in 2011 as a Care Advisor and has held several roles since including Head of Information, Support and Advocacy and Deputy Director of Campaigns Care and Support.

Prior to joining the charity sector, Neeru worked as an accountant in the private sector before moving to the occupational therapy department at Evelina Children’s Hospital in London providing frontline NHS therapy.  The catalyst for the change from the private sector was due to the inadequate care received by her brother who lives with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.  This experience led to Neeru wanting to make a positive difference to improving the support available to people living with muscle wasting conditions and their families.