North-East hospice Butterwick Hospice Care appoints new chief executive

Edward Gorringe takes over at the helm of Butterwick Hospice Care at a challenging time for all charities following the pandemic and now the cost-of-living crisis.

The hospice was established nearly 40 years ago by Mary Butterwick, who sold her family home in Stockton to finance the charity following the death of her husband, John.

Edward said: “Butterwick Hospice Care has been through a challenging time in recent years, but it has a proud track record of being at the heart of the community over four decades. I’m committed to building on that positive history to develop a new chapter in the remarkable Butterwick story.”

The new chief executive hails from Northern Ireland and trained as an accountant at a firm in London after studying psychology and computer science at Queen’s University Belfast.

He went on to become finance director of a printing company before returning to Northern Ireland to take up posts in local government and central government. His first step into the charity sector came when he was appointed assistant director of finance and administration with Barnardo’s.

After gaining further experience with the Police Rehabilitation and Retraining Trust, Mr Gorringe became chief executive of the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission.

He then spent five years as chief executive of MindWise, one of Northern Ireland’s leading mental health charities, before he and his wife, Jennifer, relocated to County Durham to be near their children, Timothy and Eleanor, who had settled in the region after studying at North-East universities.

He was Diocesan Secretary of the Church of England Diocese of Durham before being appointed as chief executive of Newcastle Carers in April 2021.

In addition to his charity career, Edward is also a Church of England priest, having been ordained in 2007, and looking after the parish of Dromara, in County Down, for three years. He also served as an Army chaplain in Northern Ireland and is now a Reserve Chaplain with 8 Rifles, based in Bishop Auckland.

“It was while serving as a parish priest that I saw at first-hand the value of high-quality palliative care, and my own father died in a hospice, so being able to work in that field was one of the attractions of joining Butterwick Hospice Care,” he said.

“I’ve taken great satisfaction from being able to grow charities, and I’ve got no doubt that there is great potential for the hospice to reset after a difficult period and build on its proud legacy.”

Edward is a trustee of the national charity Rethink Mental Illness and a founding trustee of Mental Health UK.

He also uses his passion for motorbikes to deliver blood for the NHS as a volunteer for the Northumbria Blood Bikes charity.