Patrons

We are delighted at Play2Give to receive the Patronages from a Political figure in our own constituency to a Berkshire-born celebrity, known for many starring film roles.

â–¸David Johnston OBE MP & Winston Ellis MBE

David Johnston OBE MP

David first met Andy at Westminster in January 2020, when he presented him with a Points of Light award given by the Prime Minister.  He instantly became inspired to lend his patronage in February, 2020. Since he has helepd to deliver some of our Christmas gifts to beneficiaries, as well as attending events and with donations.

David pictured with Andy at our great gatsby ball, held at Milton Hill House in September 2023.

David’s Story

David was born onto a council estate and attended a secondary school where only 20% of people passed any 5 GCSEs. He was the first person in his family to go to university and he has spent the past 16 years running organisations that help young people across the UK to get a better education and a better job.

Most recently that was of being Chief Executive of a charity, Social Mobility Foundation, that he built in 2009 from a team of 2 to a national charity that has 7 offices across the UK helping around 7,000 people from the Isle of Wight to the Western Isles.

In 2018 David was humbled to receive an OBE from Her Majesty The Queen for services to social mobility and education. Having been elected David, who lives in the Didcot area, is keen to see Politicians get back to tackling the issues that he has seen first hand affect people’s day to day lives.

David says ‘becoming a Patron of P2G was an easy decision to make’ and we couldn’t be more delighted to have David on board.

Speaking in January 2020: “I’m delighted that Andrew Baker’s hard work on behalf of many local charities has been recognised. Andrew is an inspiring example of someone who refused to let a disadvantage they were born with hold them back and he has worked tirelessly to give back to his local community, achieving more already than most of us will. It is wonderful that his work has been recognised by the Prime Minister (Points of Light award) in this way.”

Winston Ellis MBE

In October 2018 Reading-born Dr Winston Ellis MBE became our first Celebrity Patron.  Winston is an actor, producer and martial artist.

Andy is pictured with Winston at our Party on the Park day, held in August 2023. Winston officially opened the event.

Winston’s Story

Born to Jamaican parents in Reading, Berkshire Winston is an accomplished British Actor and three-time world martial arts champion. Winston has starred alongside Johnny Depp and Kiera Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 films. Other film credits include Cass, Batman: The Dark Knight with the late Heath Ledger and Shiner alongside Michael Caine and many others.

After his martial arts career had come to an end an opportune meeting with Phillip Ko led to Winston moving to Hong Kong. During his decade living out there Winston made appearances in a number of martial arts films working with actors such as Jackie Chan Jet Li, Jean Claude Damme and Roger Moore, Robert Samuels and Mark Houghton.

Winston was a guest speaker at the House of Commons during black history month where Winston spoke about some of his life experiences growing up in Britain in the 70’s and 80’s and his personal journey battling dyslexia and racism in the educational system and overcoming them to become not only an actor but a film producer and director.

He hosted the Against Breast Cancer’s Achievement Awards for three consecutive years from 2017, and met our founder Andy at the 2019 ceremony when Andy was honoured winning the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’. Winston is delighted to support our charity, and attended our Hollywood gala ball in 2022.

In June 2023 he was made an MBE in the King’s first Birthday Honours for charitable services to Ethnic Minority communities.