31st March 2025 – The Swan Sanctuary

It is with immense sadness we have to announce the passing of Gary Nelson a founding trustee of the Swan Sanctuary.

Gary had been involved with The Swan Sanctuary since it started and was married to Melanie, the daughter of Swan Sanctuary Founder Dorothy (Dot) Beeson. His loss is felt deeply by everyone here but especially his wife Melanie, daughter Gemma, son Edward and granddaughter Lucy all of whom live and work at the hospital. Gary was always ready to help us all keep our perspective with a quip or a joke through some of the darker moments there always are in a hospital, things will of course never be quite the same without him.

As well as holding down a full time job outside of the Sanctuary Gary handled the financial and IT infrastructure needs of the charity and was instrumental in making sure we kept up with our obligations to the Charities Commission. We will no doubt be finding out more of the other tasks he was doing now he is no longer with us.

Gary left us very quickly and passed after a very short illness and we are still coming to terms with his loss but we hope to be able to provide our normal levels of service very shortly.