About Lasting Life
The launch of LASTING LIFE in 2016 was a personal turning point and stepping stone to new horizons, and although I have many plans for our charities future I’m thrilled for what in the first four years we’ve managed to achieve.
LASTING LIFE the Simon MacCorkindale Legacy is in need of your donations to enable us to help those living with cancer in their time of need. If it is special care, specialised treatments, therapies, whatever is needed in whatever way, our fundraising, your monies will be used to help provide individual support. Do visit our Legacy page to see the charities we have been able to help through your kind donations and our fundraising.
We are a small charity with a big heart, powerful in our belief and endeavours and no challenge or bridge will ever be too far to cross.
Everyone in life needs an umbrella at sometime ❤️
Our Trustees

Susan George
Susan George


Doreen Taylor
Doreen Taylor


Brian Aris
Brian Aris

Brian Aris began his photographic career as a photojournalist, working for a London agency. Over the next nine years a series of frontline assignments took him around the world – to cover the civil unrest and riots at the start of the troubles in Northern Ireland, the plight of Palestinian children in Jordan, the civil war in Lebanon, famine in Africa and the war in Vietnam, where he worked until the final days of the conflict in Saigon. He then decided on a complete change of direction and opened a studio in London where he started photographing fashion and glamour. During two decades he covered every aspect of the music scene from punk rock, glam’ rock and straight rock ‘n’ roll with the Rolling Stones right through to the emergence of the boy bands and then the girl power that arrived with The Spice Girls. Commissioned by Bob Geldof to photograph his wedding to Paula Yates, Brian was then brought in to take the exclusive official pictures of the all-superstar Band Aid line-up organised by Bob as they got together to record the sensationally successful fund-raising hit single Do They Know It’s Christmas? To help the victims of the Ethiopian famine. Exclusive backstage coverage of the Live Aid and Live8 concerts followed and Brian eventually went back to Ethiopia with Bob to photograph the work that had been carried out there as a result of the money raised. Other glamorous weddings followed – Sting to Trudy Styler in Dorset, David Bowie to Iman in a cathedral in Florence, Liza Minelli to David Gest in New York, Joan Collins to Percy Gibson in London and David Beckham to Victoria in an Irish castle. Band Aid returned in 2014 to raise funds to fight Ebola in Africa and once again Brian photographed the official line up for Sir Bob Geldof.
The late Princess Margaret’s son David Linley asked Brian to take the official photographs at his wedding to Serena Stanhope and it was on that occasion that he photographed members of the Royal Family for the first time. He went on to photograph Her Majesty the Queen Mother at Clarence House and Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret at Kensington Palace. He was then commissioned to produce the official portraits marking both Her Majesty The Queen’s 70th birthday and, later, the Golden Wedding Anniversary of her marriage to His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. Brian has also been commissioned to photograph the Duke of York, the Duchess of York and the wedding of Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips to Autumn Kelly at St. Georges Chapel, Windsor. It was there that he first photographed Kate Middleton.For some years now Brian has worked closely with Twiggy and his pictures of the supermodel are among the photographs he has on show at The National Portrait Gallery in London. Images of Mick Jagger were on show at the prestigious Recontres D’Arles exhibition in France and Brian recently had his first Spanish exhibition at the Royal Circle of Art in Barcelona. His archive represents one of the largest individual collections in the U.K.
Our Patrons

Olivia Newton John
Olivia Newton John


Dame Siân Phillips
Dame Siân Phillips

Dame Siân Phillips DBE is an award-winning actress, born in Wales. After graduating the from University of Wales she won a scholarship to RADA where she was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal. Siân has starred in hundreds of plays, television programmes and films most notably for the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre of Wales. Television series include I Claudius, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and How Green Was My Valley. Awards include a Golden Globe award, BAFTA TV award, Olivier award and a TONY award.
Siân is a Fellow of RSA, a trustee and board member of the Actors’ Benevolent Fund and Vice President of the London Welsh Centre.

Joan Branson
Joan Branson

Joan Templeman is the wife of business tycoon Richard Branson. Joan, also known as ‘Lady Branson,’ married Richard after a long period of courtship in 1989. The couple have two wonderful children who have now much established a name for themselves. In more than four decades of togetherness, Joan has been Richard’s pillar of strength. In his autobiography Richard mentions Joan’s contributions to making him the man he is today. Founder of Lasting Life Susan George and Joan have been friends for several years and Susan greatly admires her for her quiet strength of character and extreme kindness. She is a supporter of Lasting Life and all it stands for and the charity is honoured to have her on board.

Robert Lindsay
Robert Lindsay

Robert Lindsay is regarded as one of the UK’s most accomplished actors. As well as capable of singing, dancing and affable clowning, Lindsay is a heavyweight Shakespearean, having performed, among many others, Hamlet and Richard III on stage, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1981) and Edmund in the Laurence Olivier King Lear (1983), both of these last two on TV.Lindsay was ushered to Hollywood via the Tony Award-winning success of “Me and My Girl”. The movie Bert Rigby, You’re a Fool (1989) was specifically designed to showcase his delightful song-and-dance talents and show-off his charm and magnetism that scored so well with audiences, but the story was rather soporific and the film, after receiving mediocre reviews, took a nosedive at the box office.He starred with first wife Cheryl Hall in one of his popular 70s series Citizen Smith (1977). They divorced after six years. He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1986 (1985 season) for Best Actor in a Musical for “Me and My Girl”.He was awarded the 1997 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actor in a Musical of the 1996 season for his performance in Oliver! at the London Palladium. He graduated from RADA and became an Associate Member of RADA. He won Broadway’s 1987 Tony Award as Best Actor (Musical) for “Me and My Girl.”.

Margo Marrone
Margo Marrone


Mike Read
Mike Read

Created a Knight of Malta in 2011, Mike Read has won ten National Broadcaster of the Year Awards, an International Music award, and has been awarded the Gold Badge of Merit by the British Music Industry. A household name in Britain, he’s fronted three top-rated long-running TV series, Top of the Pops, Pop Quiz & Saturday Superstore and three national radio breakfast shows, including Radio One and Classic FM. He features regularly on the re-runs of Top of the Pops on BBC Four and has presented two Pop Quiz specials for the BBC in 2016/2017.
2016 saw him presenting front line programmes for the BBC as well as producing and presenting a new TV series, Tin Pan Alley for Sky in 2016. From 2015-2016 he has been shooting, producing and presenting a six-part series on location in Jamaica, featuring Noel Coward, Oscar Hammerstein, Ian Fleming, Errol Flynn, John F. Kennedy and Johnny Cash.
A best-selling author, he has had thirty-seven books published, written eight stage musicals and penned songs for over forty major artists including Cliff Richard, The Bee Gees, Boy George, Gene Pitney, Don McLean, Brian Wilson, Barry & Robin Gibb, Donovan, David Essex, and many others. Mike has written several chart hits and twice topped the Independent singles chart and had a Top 20 classical CD with the Kings College Choir & the Eton College Chapel Choir.
He was Chairman of the Lords and Commons Entertainment Committee for several years and is Chairman of the British Plaque Trust. 2018 will see him working increasingly with the Commonwealth on the historic and entertainment front.
Mike has played himself in such perennial TV favourites as Only Fools and Horses and Midsomer Murders. He has also presented for, and worked with, most of the Royal Family and regularly travels to different parts of the world broadcasting or giving lectures.

Mike Moran MBE
Mike Moran MBE

Mike is a founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rutherford Health PLC (formerly Proton Partners International Limited). He formed the Company in February 2015 and led the successful fundraise of £211M equity and a £35M bank facility. In February 2019, he led the Company through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) growing the value to a market cap of £408.8M.
Mike was born in the City of Liverpool in 1960 and attended Alsop High School, Liverpool. He joined the Army in 1982, serving in the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Bosnia, Kosovo, the Middle East and Germany. Since retiring from the Armed Forces in 2001, Mike has established and exited from several successful businesses, primarily in the defence and healthcare sectors, operating in national and international markets.
Mike has served as Chairman of Herefordshire and Worcestershire Learning and Skills Council where he oversaw £60M of capital projects within the two Counties. He has also served as Chairman of Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce Investment Syndicate and as a fundraiser for The Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford.
Mike has a philanthropic nature; the focus of which is to support the development of young people through sport. Over the years, he has supported army ski-ing, numerous football teams, the British Biathlon Union and the International Taekwon-do Federation of England (ITF England). Mike helped ITF England successfully bid and host the European Taekwon-Do Championships in Liverpool in April 2017.
In 2010, Mike received the MBE in The Queen’s Birthday Honours list, for Service to Business.

Debbie Wiseman OBE
Debbie Wiseman OBE

Over the past 25 years, there are probably few people in the UK who have not heard one of Debbie’s film or television scores. Whether watching Stephen Fry bring Oscar Wilde to life on the big screen, hearing the latest political commentary on a Sunday morning with Andrew Marr, revelling in the Tudor world of Thomas Cromwell in “Wolf Hall”, or marvelling as Mark Williams’s Father Brown solves another murder, audiences have revelled in Debbie’s iconic themes of beauty and passion, love and laughter.
Debbie has won a TRIC Award for THE GOOD GUYS and an RTS Award for WARRIORS, and has been nominated for two Ivor Novello Awards for WILDE and DEATH OF YUGOSLAVIA. In 2016 she was awarded the Best Composer, Drama award for WOLF HALL at the RTS West Awards. She has appeared as Kirsty Young’s castaway on Desert Island Discs, and as an expert guest on the TV broadcasts of The Proms. She has presented two series of Sounds and Sweet Airs – an exploration of the history of female composers – on Classic FM.
Debbie was one of 11 composers chosen to write “New Water Music” for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant in 2012. She was also commissioned to compose the Overture and Finale music for the Queen’s 90th Birthday Celebration in May 2016 and is the appointed composer of The Pageant at the Royal Windsor Horse Show.
Debbie is currently Classic FM’s Composer in Residence. Her most recent album, The Glorious Garden, a collaboration with Alan Titchmarsh, spent three weeks at number 1 in the Uk Classical chart.
Debbie was commissioned to compose the signature music for Viking Cruises in 2016, and in March 2017 she was made Godmother to their river ship Viking Herja.
In the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2018, Debbie was appointed OBE for services to music.
In April 2019 Debbie accepted the post of President of Making Music – the first female President in the charity’s history – and she is Patron of Soundabout, the charity which has pioneered the use of music, rhythm and sound to give disabled children a voice and a way to express themselves.
Debbie’s most recent release – THE MYTHOS SUITE – a collaboration with Stephen Fry, was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the National Symphony Orchestra and released by Decca Records in February 2020, and went straight to number 1 in the UK Classical Chart.
Our Ambassadors
Mr & Mrs Talal Aggad Tristan Gemmill Mr & Mrs Stephen Less Rod and Mandy Bransgrove
Our Special Supporters
Gill MacCorkindale Celia Imrie Michael Brandon Glynis Barber Tony Hatch Judy Tzuke Jake Wood Patti Boulaye OBE and Leigh Lawson Philip Glennister Ian Shaw Gloria Hunniford Richard Arnold Fiona Kennedy OBE, DL Trevor Eve Debbie McGee Ross King Sharon Maughan Christopher Biggins Nikki Haddock Rosemary Ford Leonor Stjepic Peter Egan Will Travers Liam Galvin Sunetra Sarka Charlie Brooks Juliet Mills Maxwell Caulfield Mandy Burr Grant Harold Cathy Kangas Jack Stooks Michele Wood
Enormous thanks to our small but dedicated Lasting Life team, invaluable Personal Assistant Valerie Bolton, media promotions Michele Wood and Trish Caller, event planner Liz Napier and Trustee Doreen Taylor.