Meet our Community Peer Support Officers

Peter Hutchings

Peter Hutchings became spinal cord injured following surgery in 1999. He was initially treated at his local District General Hospital before being transferred to the Salisbury Spinal Injuries Centre. He fully appreciates the importance of leaving hospital armed with as much information as possible. Through his experience of living with spinal cord injury Peter is able to talk one-to-one with newly paralysed people, their families and friends. Living independently with a disability, he can also provide information and advice across a range of topics relating to spinal cord injury.

 Simon Brierley 

Simon became C6 tetraplegic through a traumatic spinal cord injury in Sydney, Australia in 1994. After 4 months stabilisation in a Spinal Centre in Sydney, Simon was repatriated to the UK for rehab at the NSIC at Stoke Mandeville.   He has gone on to live independently and been involved actively in the SCI community volunteering and participating in various activities.  Having experienced some of the best care available, and witnessing through work and world wide travel varying degrees of care being provided, he is fully aware of the importance of education and understanding of SCI and how it impacts daily life.   Simon has mentored newly paralysed people in topics such as the importance of diet and research to sport and travelling. 

Jamie Rhind

Jamie became spinal cord injured as a result of a diving accident in 1998. Following nine months rehabilitation at the Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Unit in Sheffield, he set about rebuilding his life and now lives independently in his own home and successfully completed a broadcast journalism degree in 2008. Jamie has volunteered as a mentor for newly injured people, passing on his knowledge and experience of the various aspects of living with spinal cord injury. He fully appreciates the importance of peer support, ensuring newly paralysed people, and their family and friends aren’t alone in dealing with spinal cord injury. Jamie has joined SIA at a particularly exciting time as we expand our Community Peer Support Service throughout England and Wales.  His remit will be to support those with SCI who are being treated in non-SCI Specialist hospitals in Greater Manchester and the Liverpool area.