Meet the Sunlight team 

Adam Price, Chair of Trustees and Freedom to Speak Up Guardian

Adam Price, Chair of Trustees has lived locally for over 30 years, he has been a Trustee since 2010, a local councillor on and off since May 1998. Since May 2023 he has served as lead member in the cabinet for Children’s services. Following a career in the NHS Adam is now semi-retired. He works as an independent caseworker for various branches of UNISON.   Adam enjoys swimming and walking with Medway Ramblers following the sad loss of his wife from cancer.

Simon MiIlard (Adv Dip Couns, Acc Memb NCPS), Vice-chair

Simon MiIlard (Adv Dip Couns, Acc Memb NCPS), Vice-chair and Training Lead lived near the Sunlight Laundry as a child and several of his relatives worked in the laundry. He ran a successful DIY/Building business for 25 years in Gillingham and has been on The Sunlight Steering Committee / Board since 2000 and is the founder of Kent Anger Management. Simon is a counsellor, supervisor, mediator, coach, and facilitator offering training, workshops, seminars, and presentations.  He is a family man and has interests in music, sport and creative arts.

Lesley Mayo, Trustee  

Lesley Mayo, Company Secretary since 2023 and Trustee since 2020.  Lesley lives locally and has a passion about our local community green spaces and employability programmes for young people with her former experience at Mid-Kent College as a 14-19 Coordinator.  

Lia Mandaracas, Trustee and Service User Representative

Lia is a local resident who benefited from the Centre as a teenager and is now a Counsellor for Gillingham North and a caseworker for Naushabah Khan MP since July 2024.  Lia works from our internet cafe and listens to our beneficiaries to ensure that our services best meet their needs. She has a passion for increasing our engagement with young people and represents our community on a number of committees.

Clive Waters, Acting Treasurer and Community Representative

Clive was a founder community member of the Sunlight Centre, campaigning to save the old laundry from demolition and opening the building every Sunday as Treasurer of the Baptist Church for many years.  He has also been a longstanding volunteer at Café Sunlight and we were delighted when he applied to become a Trustee in 2024 as Acting Treasurer and community representative on Love Gillingham.

Annette Lebreton, Trustee

After growing up in Gillingham, Annette has joined us as a new trustee. With a background in retail, marketing, event, and project management, she brings a wealth of experience and knowledge. With a key eye for detail and a passion for community engagement, she loves to see people and businesses thrive. In her spare time, she loves running, keeping active and spending time outdoors.

Mirelle Frost MBA, Chief Executive Officer 

Mirelle joined in 2024 to help us to expand our asset-based services for our community.  She brings experience of property management, fundraising, mental health and domestic abuse service delivery.  She is passionate helping people and planet and received a scholarship award as a Leader of Sustainability from the University of Kent and a Health Business Award from Kent County Council as CEO of Kent Enterprise Trust.    In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family plus horse riding and volunteering for Riding for Disabled. 

Tracey Cross, Finance Manager 

Tracey has been a member of the strategic management team at the Sunlight Centre since 2009. Working predominately in the charity sector, her career in finance has been fuelled by her passion to support and empower local communities.

In her spare time Tracey loves to spend time with her husband, children and grandchildren. Exploring the beautiful Kent countryside is one of her favourite pastimes, as well as cooking and enjoying different cuisines from around the world. 

Megan Hannant, Safe Haven Team Manager

Megan joined the Sunlight Centre in March 2022 as Facilities Support Assistant and was seconded into our Wellbeing Café shortly after. She now managers our evening and weekend service to support the community with their mental health needs, sign posting and teaching people to become more aware of their behaviours. Megan has worked in private residential rehabilitation homes for forensic clients, supported livings for adults with ASC and learning difficulties.  Megan contributes to the community in her spare time as A Better Medway Champion. She believes the Wellbeing Café is a vital part of the community and wishes she knew about the service when she had been struggling with her own mental health challenges. 

Jason Cheesman, Deputy Safe Haven Team Manager

Jason joined us in 2023 as a Facilitator and was quickly promoted due to his experience in supporting people with mental health needs, specialising in Drug and Alcohol Addiction, Young People and Homelessness.  He is also a musician and music promoter.  

Nadeem Malik, Recovery Worker 

Nadeem joined us in 2023 with Level 1, 2 and 3 Understanding Mental Health and Awareness and personal experience with mental health to support our service users.  He enjoys continuous learning and socialising with friends e.g. Playing pool.  Nadeem is looking to take on a Level 4 in Counselling or Psychology as his next challenge for personal and professional development. 

Tandia Kilmister, Recovery Worker

Tandia joined the team in November 2023 and hit the ground running. She excels in making the community members feel welcome and valued, and we’re sure not sure how we managed without her bubbly, loud and loving personality. This is Tandia’s first job following time out spent recovering from a motorcycle accident. 

Anumesh Chandra, Facilities Services Assistant

Started with Sunlight in  2024, as a dedicated professional known for his passion for working for solutions, new ideas, helping people and community. He enjoys listening to podcasts, cooking, and spending time with his family.

Chris White, Medway Men in Sheds, Music and Electronics Co-ordinator 

Chris is a long serving employee with a background of 20 years in community development, rehabilitation and health and well-being services. Prior to that, his career was primarily graphic design, print management and corporate communications – for small and multinational agencies in a wide spectrum of creative work.  His professional qualifications (beyond marketing communication) include a wide spectrum including; business management, engineering, countryside management and hypnotherapy. 

Malcolm Hazleton, Health and Wellbeing Coordinator

Malcolm is a qualified Counsellor and Body Psychotherapist, with experience in Systemic work at the Institute of Family Therapy.  He grew up west of Birmingham (it’s called the Black Country), lived on a narrow boat in the midlands, in a cottage in Mid Wales, planted trees, was a bar manager in a community theatre in Deptford, drove a play bus, kayaked around the Isle of Wight and taught people to ride motorbikes.  He now lives in Strood with his wife and two step-children; he also has two sons who live in London and two daughters in the USA. 

Melvena Ford, Café Supervisor 

Mel joined us as a volunteer in 2022 and now runs our community café.  She has been a Teaching Assistant and a Paediatric First Aider.  In her free time, Mel enjoys cooking West Indian food.

Phil Sissons, Marketing Support (freelance) 

Phil worked all over the world in media and project management for 25 years. Since his return to the UK he has worked and volunteered for a number of charities based in Medway in both creative and managerial positions. Outside of work, he enjoys vegan cooking, going to the opera and selling his artwork online. 

Sheila Caulfield, Employability and Lifestyle Confidence Coach (freelance)

Sheila will be supporting all of our service managers to improve our outcomes for their service users on a part time basis. She recently won an award judged on her customer testimonials, publications and descriptions of projects which worked in partnership with including ‘On Your Bike and Into Work’ at Kent Enterprise Trust.