Saying thank you and looking forward: Unreal's next chapter
After more than six years of leading Unreal, Jane Charlton has stepped down as the Chair. We want to take a moment to mark Jane's remarkable contribution, both to Unreal and to the wider awareness of DPDR.
Jane co-founded Unreal in 2019, working diligently to bring together the board of Trustees and laying the groundwork for Unreal to become the UK’s leading charity for DPDR.
But Jane's influence within the DPDR community goes back long before then. She has long been a tireless advocate for awareness of depersonalisation and derealisation disorder, including through her own willingness to share her experience publicly. In 2015 she was featured in a landmark Guardian article by Howard Swains, which over the years has been credited by countless people for helping them to recognise their own condition for the first time.
Since then she has raised awareness of DPDR through media appearances, including on the BBC Victoria Derbyshire Show in 2017, during which several viewers called in to say she had helped them identify their own condition. She has also appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Digital Human. Jane has contributed lived-experience insight to published research and professional publications on DPDR, helping to ensure that the voices of those with the condition are part of how it is understood and treated.
In 2019, Jane's story was shared in a Westminster Hall parliamentary debate on DPDR and NHS treatment, led by MP Lyn Brown, with the Minister for Health personally acknowledging Jane's courage and contribution to raising awareness of the condition. This debate was the catalyst for the founding of Unreal in recognition of the need to support and advocate for those with lived experience.
As Chair, Jane initiated the set up of our flagship peer support offer, which has offered over 1,500 places to people experiencing DPDR across the last two years alone. She has led this charity with warmth, steadiness and genuine care, particularly through the challenges of lockdowns and a move to a digital first approach, and leaves us on solid foundations, ready for the next chapter.
Jane has dedicated an incredible amount of time and energy to Unreal, and we are all so grateful. She is stepping back to spend some well earned time with her family, and we wish her every happiness. We are delighted that Jane will remain on Unreal’s board to continue to share her experiences.
We have taken this opportunity to review how our board of Trustees operates and we will shortly be recruiting to our board. If you have any questions or comments in the meantime, please reach out through email at contact.unrealuk@gmail.com
Heather Perkins, co-founder of Unreal, will serve as interim Chair while we recruit for the role permanently.
A statement from Jane
“Having the opportunity to found and Chair Unreal has been one of the most fulfilling and life affirming experiences of my life. It was through setting up the charity that I first spoke to another person with the disorder, which was a healing and emotional experience in itself, but it’s also through the charity that I’ve gone on to meet hundreds more strong, brave humans that are fighting to live meaningfully with the condition and recover from it. In the last 6 years, depersonalisation - once a strange word - has become more and more mainstream. This awareness is what will stop people with the condition being isolated and create funding for more and better treatments. Unreal is in very safe hands and I am fully confident that the next chapter for the charity will bring even greater reach and impact. That can only be a very good thing.”
