The founder and CEO of a Bournemouth-based charity has been named as one of the hundred most influential disabled individuals in the UK.
Sam Everard, of SAMEE – which stands for Support and Mentoring Enabling Entrepreneurship – features in this year’s Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 list, announced last night.
The 48-year-old lives with the debilitating condition of Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or chronic fatigue syndrome.
She founded the charity eight years ago, helping disabled people to start their own businesses.
Individuals on the Power 100 list are publicly nominated and judged by a panel of 25 disabled champions, including international business leader Dr Shani Dhanda; Chief Executive of Paralympics GB, David Clarke, and Coronation Street actor Cherylee Houston.
Alona De Havilland, Head of Disability Power 100, said: “The Disability Power 100 is all about creating change, it celebrates ambition and achievement, and plays a role in challenging society’s perceptions of disability by recognising the strengths, contributions and successes of 100 disabled individuals each year.”
SAMEE has won numerous awards for its work and is a Disability Confident Leader level 3 awarded charity – the highest level achievable and the first charity in Dorset to achieve the status.
Sam also champions change for disabled people on a national level.
In her role as Chair for the government’s South West Regional Stakeholder Network, she works alongside the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work to bring the voices of disabled people and their organisations into policy development.
She is also a registered career development professional and a post graduate research student at the Centre for Seldom Heard Voices at Bournemouth University, where she is completing a PhD about self-employment support for neurodivergent people.
Sam said: “I’m really humbled to be included in the top 100 but I am most proud about the disabled community that I represent daily.
“I know that they are all able to succeed if given the right support.
“The work of our incredible small charity proves that disabled people can be empowered to follow their ambitions with great success.
“I was diagnosed three years ago and learning to live with a disability has taught me even more about dealing with the everyday challenges faced by many of the people we mentor.
“Some days I’m in a wheelchair, other days brain fog leaves me unable to string two coherent words together or even remember how to carry out simple tasks like making a cup of tea.
“This condition is awful but the insight it has given me is incredible.”