Meet our new trustee, Chloe: “I welcome the opportunity to raise awareness and help find solutions”

5 November 2024

This Trustees’ Week, we welcome Chloe Docker as our new trustee. Chloe, who lives with nemaline myopathy, has been an ambassador for Muscular Dystrophy UK for 20 years and is a powerful advocate for disability rights. Aged 28, she is also the youngest trustee in our 65-year history.

Chloe Docker (née Ball-Hopkins) has been involved with us as a charity since she was eight years’ old, after being diagnosed with nemaline myopathy at a young age. Now, aged 28, Chloe has recently been co-opted to our Board of Trustees, making her the youngest trustee in our 65-year history.

From speaking at corporate events to jumping out of a plane, her aim has always been to build a more inclusive and equal world for people living with conditions like hers – helping us to increase awareness of muscle wasting and weakening conditions; and raise money to support others and fund groundbreaking research.

Living with nemaline myopathy, Chloe has grown up with few people understanding what is going to happen to her.

“I realised from a young age that if healthcare professionals need me to explain my condition to them and even the leading hospitals and experts can’t tell me how it will deteriorate, then I just need to make the best of what I have and go with it.”

A powerful advocate for disability rights, Chloe has worked with online fashion brand ASOS to design wheelchair-friendly clothing and has also represented Great Britain in Para Archery, breaking world records and winning medals in 2014 and 2015. An injury meant that she missed out on a place in the team for the Rio 2016 Paralympics, but she went on to pursue a career as a journalist and currently works as a Senior Studio Producer at Dyson.

Throughout her life, Chloe has always focused on finding solutions and working to change people’s perceptions and she hopes that joining our Board of Trustees will enable her to improve society further.

“I have lots of great memories working with Muscular Dystrophy UK over the years,” said Chloe. “Speaking at the Microscope Ball and visiting the charity’s garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show recently were definite highlights, but what I enjoy most is having the opportunity to tell people about what it’s like to live with the condition and raising awareness about muscular dystrophies. I hope we can build a more inclusive and equal world for people with conditions like mine, and any form of health condition or disability.

“I’m honoured to become a trustee of Muscular Dystrophy UK, and the timing is just so right. I’ve been an ambassador for the charity for two decades this year and have been wondering what more I can do. I can’t wait to join the incredible members of the Board and help contribute at this next level.”

Chloe was co-opted to our Board of Trustees in July 2024 and formally voted onto the Board at our AGM in October.

What is a Trustee?

As a registered charity, we are governed by a Board of Trustees, who advise and support our Chief Executive and Senior Leadership Team. Our trustees are responsible for making sure we are doing what the charity was set up to do, upholding our values, achieving our purpose, complying with legal requirements, and managing our resources responsibly. Trustees use their skills and experience to support the charity and make decisions together as a team (Board). It is an unpaid role, but reasonable expenses can be claimed.