Celebrity Ambassadors
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dodie is a singer songwriter from Epping, who has built her growing fanbase independently and organically since she was 16.
Originally posting her music on YouTube, dodie has now released 1 LP + 3 EPs which have charted in the UK, US Billboard, and Australian album charts. Most notably her debut album Build A Problem reached #3 in the UK Albums Chart in 2021.
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Will Young is a British singer, songwriter and actor who was propelled into stardom after winning the first ever series of Pop Idol in 2002. He has since sold over eight million albums and won two Brit Awards, as well as making television documentaries.
Will says: “As someone who has, and does experience depersonalisation, I am heartened and touched by the work of Unreal and am very happy to be an ambassador for the support and guidance they provide for such a lonely and isolating disorder.”
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Foster is a recording artist and songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee. Beginning by posting tracks on SoundCloud at the age of 14, he has grown to become a well rooted artist in the LoFi Rap world, claiming over 100 million streams on his viral debut single and releasing his debut EP in late 2022.
Slightly before starting his journey as a musician, Foster developed a chronic form of DPDR that now plays a heavy role in his lyrical subject matter and creativity.
Clinical Ambassadors
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Tony David was an honorary consultant at the Maudsley Hospital from 1990-2018 and Vice Dean for Academic Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London in 2013-8. He has been the director of the UCL Institute of Mental Health since 2018.
Professor David has a wide range of research interests including neuropsychiatry and neuroimaging. He started researching Depersonalisation Disorder in the 1990s and set up the Depersonalisation Research Unit at the Institute of Psychiatry and subsequently established the first NHS clinic for DPDR at the Maudsley Hospital. He has published many scientific articles on the topic and co-authored a self-help book Overcoming: Depersonalisation and Feelings Of Unreality.
Professor David is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Academy of Medical Sciences. He is a member of the Experimental Psychology Society and a founder member of both the British Neuropsychological Society and British Neuropsychiatry Association.
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Elaine is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who has worked with Depersonalisation and Derealisation Disorder since 1999. She has conducted research into improving psychological treatment of the condition and worked clinically to try to help many people with the condition.
In March 2019 she set up The Depersonalisation Clinic to allow her freedom to see a wider range of clients. In the last few years she has collaborated with many involved with Unreal in trying to raise awareness of DPDR as well as improving access to treatment and increasing research funding. She suggested that a charity specifically for DPDR would be beneficial and helped to found Unreal.
Board Members & Trustees
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Board Member
Jane has suffered from episodic DPDR since early adulthood. Her initial episode was triggered by a single use of cannabis and lasted approximately three years. Panic attacks have triggered subsequent and shorter episodes however her DPDR has become more chronic of late and she is currently in an episode which has lasted approximately five years to date.
Jane is a founding member of Unreal and is a Civil Servant, mainly working on international policy and is keen to use this to continue raising awareness in political fora. She waited over two years for her initial diagnosis due to a lack of awareness of the condition, and she has been campaigning for the last three years striving to ensure that this situation is not replicated for others. To date, she has campaigned for recognition of the condition in a number of different fora.
The Guardian newspaper featured Jane in an article published in in September 2015 entitled; ‘Depersonalisation Disorder, the condition you’ve never heard of that affects millions’, and Jane has appeared on the BBC Victoria Derbyshire Show. She also co-authored an article on the condition for inclusion in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), alongside Dr Elaine Hunter and Professor Anthony David, and participated in the subsequent BMJ podcast. Alongside this she has presented at numerous conferences for clinicians, mental health activists, and those in healthcare management, including NHS Improvement.
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Interim Chair, Trustee & Board Member
Heather is Communications professional with extensive experience of working with charities and non-profits. She currently works in communications for a leading UK charity.
Heather experienced recurring episodes of DPDR between 2015 and 2018. She is pleased to report that she has had very few episodes since that time. She describes feeling very frightened and isolated by her experience and is intent on raising awareness of DPDR so that other people can access the support that they need.
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Trustee
Liam joined the Board in April 2020 to lead on Unreal's finances and provide general corporate support. While Liam has not suffered from DPDR himself, he is keen to pick up the background tasks that create space for our team to concentrate on supporting others.
Liam became a chartered accountant in 2018 and completed an MBA at Coventry University in 2023. He currently works for NatWest as a Strategic Finance Lead following a career in the Civil Servant working in policy development and change management. This experience brings vital skills to support Unreal's efforts to raise awareness and reach out to as many people as we can.
In his free time Liam can usually be found doing one sport or another or out and about exploring.
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Trustee & Board Member
Joe has experienced chronic DPDR since 2008 and, like many, his awareness of the condition only came about following many late-night Googling sessions and ‘discovering’ it himself. Upon realising that his symptoms simply couldn’t have been anything else, DPDR was ‘pitched’ to the local professionals, and he was subsequently diagnosed by the Maudsley Hospital in 2018.
Joe is a musician based in Bristol, having studied Commercial Music at university and learnt various instruments from a young age. Since graduating, the pursuit of a career in the industry has been forced to take a back seat in the daily battles of living with DPDR – however, music remains central to his life and a key factor in keeping him motivated & stable.
Raising awareness of the condition is a key passion of Joe’s – and after running a DPDR-themed YouTube channel for several years, he wrote his book Life On Autopilot (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2021) and has since been featured in many newspapers & blogs, as well as being a guest on some key mental health podcasts. He also speaks at conferences and to university psychology classes, giving his lived experience perspective on how the condition can impact somebody’s life, and is on the leadership committee for several academic & clinical studies into DPDR.
At Unreal, Joe handles the charity’s behind-the-scenes admin and runs our Peer Support programme.
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Board Member
Mary is a carer for her daughter Jane who has lived with DPDR for over 20 years. Having searched unsuccessfully for a local support group for carers to fit around her working hours she pledged to set one up when she retired. This group ran for five years before closing following the pandemic. She then furthered her involvement with mental health networks locally to raise awareness of DPDR, giving talks to nursing students at the local university.
Mary’s involvement with the board of Unreal enables her to support raising awareness nationally, and through this, to drive improvements in diagnosis and treatment for this little-understood and debilitating condition. She has also chaired the EbE Patient and Carers group in the School of Health Sciences at Southampton University. This has been a voluntary role working in partnership with senior leaders to put the 'voice' of patients and carers central to education policy - from student recruitment to curriculum design, teaching and assessment.
Prior to retirement Mary enjoyed a long career in primary education and was headteacher of a junior school for 16 years.
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Trustee & Board Member
Gwen has lived experience of long-term chronic Depersonalisation Derealisation Disorder.
Gwen started volunteering with Unreal by helping to facilitate Peer Support sessions before being invited to sit on the Board as a Trustee. In her role, she assists with Compliance and Safeguarding, co-runs the flagship Peer Support programme, and leads on all Social Media activity. Since coming on board, Gwen has revitalised Unreal’s social media platforms, bringing content creation in-house and ensuring information is accessible, clear, and community-focused. This includes making information about clinicians more readily available, as well as developing resources for clinicians and for people living with DPDR.
Gwen has spoken at both national and international conferences, sharing lived experience and contributing to wider clinical and academic conversations around DPDR. She has been interviewed for Insight, the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ magazine, and is a co-author of a resource booklet for young people experiencing symptoms of depersonalisation and derealisation. Gwen also spoke in the webinar launching this resource, helping to ensure young people’s voices and needs were central to its development and dissemination.
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Board Member
Michael has long-term experience with DPDR. He was one of the first to be assessed at the Depersonalisation Research Unit at The Maudsley Hospital in London over 20 years ago and has lived experience dating back to the 1980s.
It was only with the advent of the internet that he discovered other people were experiencing similar symptoms and that revelation set him on a path to better understand the condition and assist in research. He joined the board of Unreal after meeting chair Jane Charlton at a support group.
Michael has a background in film and video production, and he hopes these skills can assist in raising awareness of DPDR while documenting any research being made along the way. He enjoys film, scriptwriting, travel, folklore, anthropology, architecture and challenging himself with unconventional trips and immersing himself in other cultures.
