Julie Wooton & Paul Wooton

We are treasurer and chair of trustees for Max Appeal. We set up a support group in 1999 following the death of our son, Max, and the group obtained charitable status in 2001. You can read Max’s story under ‘testimonials’.  

Paul is a property development consultant, working mainly within the social and affordable housing sector. Paul keeps a close eye on the money and fundraising. He has run over 20 half marathons for Max Appeal at the Great North Run generally but claims to really not like running at all, preferring golf, tennis and (rather embarrassingly) Shrewsbury Town Football Club.

Julie volunteers essentially full time for Max Appeal but is chair of trustees for the Children’s Heart Federation and a trustee for Cardiovascular Care Partnership UK (patient arm of the British Cardiovascular Society) and Genetic Alliance UK. You could be fooled in to thinking it would keep her out of mischief.  

We have been married for far too long and have two other children; Georgia was born in 1994 and is an optician, you can read a paper she worked on about ocular differences in 22q11 duplications, which she did a poster presentation for at the 22q Society conference in Sirmione, under ‘library’, Archie was born in 2000 and is a student studying property development in between playing rugby and going to the pub. It goes without saying that both of them are utterly delightful, that’s a facetious comment by the way.  

Clearly, running Max Appeal has a huge impact on the whole family because we are ‘on it’ every day and there are times when, being perfectly frank, we don’t actually enjoy it. However, we see the impact that it has had on the 22q community within the UK and abroad. We are also humbled by the people and families we meet, overwhelmed by the support for Max Appeal and grateful to the trustees and staff who are so committed to Max Appeal that makes it the global success that it is.