Jean Henderson started volunteering with the Learning Disabilities Federation in the early 1990s. Her dedication to helping people who have a learning disability was outstanding. She was a caring person with a lovely personality whose main aim was to ensure the vulnerable people LDF supported were looked after and cared for in times of crisis.

Jean was loved and respected by not only the people she cared for, but also the families of the people who accessed LDF support. During her time at LDF Jean was part of initiating many projects and had identified that as people were growing older, they were being left more isolated and lonely. Its was through Jeans determination and persistent efforts that the idea of our Tomorrows Project came to be.

Jean did a lot of work with many of our service users who are supported on this project. Her passion was that LDF, now under its new identity LD:NorthEast, would be able to support the people who had no formal support and did not qualify for any funding, yet were vulnerable and isolated within the community. Jean did lots of fundraising and volunteered her time to offer low level support to this group of people. Delivering food parcels at Christmas and visiting people when they felt lonely are just a few examples of the good work Jean did to help people. Jean loved to ensure holidays and short breaks were accessible to everyone and explore ways of funding for those who could not afford this themselves.

Sadly, Jean passed away in 2012 and in true Jean style left a donation to LD:NorthEast to help people who were in times of hardship and crisis. Jean would be so proud of the work that LD:NorthEast and particularly the Tomorrows Team are doing by supporting people who are growing older and at risk of loneliness and isolation. In order to keep Jeans memory alive, her donation has now been directed to setting up the AJ fund. Jean over the years was fondly known to many as Auntie Jean so the AJ Hardship Fund has been set up in her memory to help the very people she felt were the most vulnerable. LD: NorthEast have now set up a committee of people to look at how the legacy of Jean can live on through the AJ Fund and how this can have meaning and purpose to serve the people over many years to come.