From the outset, Dee Ahearn has focused on making the charity’s income sustainable and its governance irreproachable so that its campers can rely on it, the camp for children living with serious illness and their families was catering to 1,700 people annually: last year that number had multiplied tenfold to 17,000, and the ambition is to hit 33,500 by the end of 2027.
That transformation over the past 13 years has only been possible, she argues, because of a relentless focus on running the charity as a business. That was the mandate from the time Danuta Gray, outgoing chairwoman of Barretstown and a former head of the O2 mobile phone group, got in touch asking her to come on board. It was all a far cry from the rollercoaster world of Treasury Holdings where she was at the time international sales marketing director, but a previous stint with the Make a Wish charity – including a spell as its chairwoman – meant she was not entirely blind to the challenges ahea