“We wouldn’t have been able to get as far as we have as a charity without her driving the whole thing.”

Carlisle Mencap has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the past 20 years, and a lot of that success is down to Sheila Gregory.

The charity’s chief executive for the past 22 years, Sheila’s dedication, passion and compassion has propelled Carlisle Mencap from a small organisation focused on the city to a county-wide force for good, providing vital support to more than 500 people of all ages with learning disabilities.

That is why Carlisle Mencap’s events and fundraising officer Phil Taylor says Sheila deserves a lot of the credit for “transforming” the fortunes of the charity since she became its chief executive in 1998, along with the fact that although Carlisle Mencap is affiliated to the national Mencap society, it is actually independently funded and managed.

“She has very much been the driving force behind Mencap,” Phil said.

“So much so, that out of all the Mencap groups across the UK, we’re now the fourth biggest Mencap.

Phil gave a recent example of Carlisle Mencap’s outsized success. The local charity joined a national Mencap campaign to encourage greater awareness among NHS staff of the impact learning difficulties can have on access to healthcare.

“It’s not always easy for people with learning disabilities to describe how ill they are,” Phil said.

“Because of this, they have a higher mortality rate.

“Sheila threw herself into this campaign, encouraging everyone she could to sign up.

“Of all the people who signed up across the country, 12 per cent came from Carlisle.

“That meant we were by far the most successful group in getting people to sign up to that campaign.”

Phil added that Sheila is equally compassionate towards her staff as she is towards those Carlisle Mencap supports.

“Our staff are dealing at times with some difficult situations. It can be a stressful job, being a support worker or a team leader.

“She’s very keen on making sure the staff are very well looked after, with a great emphasis on staff wellbeing and training that’s second-to-none.”