Dee grew up surrounded by the natural world first on the West Coast of Scotland and later on a small organic farm in South Wales. Dee remembers helping collect herbs for her Dad when he was a patient of David Hoffman and needed to drink herbal teas. In later life she travelled to Dharamsala in India where she saw Tibetan herbal medicine in practice and decided to dedicate her life to herbs. She graduated as a medical herbalist in 1988 when, she remembers, there were only two modern books on the subject available to students!

Just a year after graduation, Dee had the incredible opportunity to take over Napiers The Herbalists of Edinburgh – one of the UK’s oldest herbal businesses, established in 1860. Dee spent the next 33 years building the brand and creating clinics and apprenticeship opportunities for countless herbalists following in her footsteps.

Dee has held office on the Council of the College of Practitioners of Phytotherapy and The National Institute of Medical Herbalists where she was elected a Fellow in 2018. She sat on the first Herbal Medicine Regulatory Working Group sponsored by The Prince of Wales Foundation for Integrated Health and has advised industry sponsored forums relating to the regulation of herbal products. She continues to practise herbal medicine from Napiers Clinic in Edinburgh. She also lectures in the UK and abroad and participates in training clinics for herbal students.

Dee’s passion for herbal education is well known. She sees the future of herbal medicine in the advancement of professional training courses that will stop it being sidelined as a cottage industry, and also in community outreach where herbalists ensure that people do not forget about herbal medicine as a viable healthcare option. She is keen to see the trust promote more educational projects like Junior Herbalist Club and to support herbalists engage with their local communities.

Travelling since he was a child in Malaysia and Africa gifted Iain a fascinating start in life which has had a lasting influence on him. Iain found his calling in the business world and founded a successful business supplying steel pipe to the energy agency. Meanwhile in his personal life, his keen interest in natural health, and in particular, biodynamic agriculture, led him to Emerson college where he became involved as a volunteer with the apothecary garden, which at the time had a link with the trust. A very practical person, Iain’s business experience was soon put to good use helping reshape the trust from a model that was no longer fit for purpose, to a modern Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), ready to ensure the best use of the legacy money that had been gifted to it.

Iain’s hopes for the trust are that it becomes a stable base for herbal medicine education – both to educate the consumer and the herbalists of the future. His vision is for the trust to continue to grow its financial legacy and expand its portfolio of support for worthy causes, fulfilling the key remit of promoting the importance of herbal medicine in people’s lives.

Paul has been a trustee since 2007 and his vision has helped shape the formation of The Herbal Trust and its flagship education programmes. He is a well known face amongst the professional herbalist community where has been a member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (NIMH) since 1988, and in 1997 joined the British Acupuncture Council as a graduate from the College of Integrated Chinese Medicine (CICM).

Paul was recognised as a NIMH Fellow in 2018 where he has served on council, helped produce practice guidelines used by members worldwide and been a mentor to newly qualified herbalists. His academic skills have been employed teaching orthodox clinical skills at CICM and as a final clinical examiner on the herbal medicine course at Middlesex University.

At horticultural college in 1980 Paul made a point of walking out of any lecture that promoted the use of chemicals in agriculture. He failed his project on ‘Weeds and How to Kill Them’ when he instead wrote about ‘Weeds and their Medicinal Uses’ but finally found his calling when he discovered the School of Herbal Medicine in Tunbridge Wells. Paul still sees patients daily and uses a combination of acupuncture and herbal medicine. He later co-authored the book ‘Herbalism: a guide to using herbal medicines for the layperson’ with his wife Frances. To ensure that he has very little spare time, Paul also has two children, two grandchildren, and a smallholding with sheep, chickens and dogs.

Paul’s dream is to one day found a herbal hospital where patients can come and be cared for with real solutions to long term symptoms. Where the ethos of herbal medicine and other trusted therapies can be offered together, where people can take time to recuperate and where real healing can take place.

Attending a council run short course on herbalism first fired up Deborah’s passion for herbal medicine. She then travelled extensively in Nepal, experiencing first-hand the culture and life of the Buddhist community living in remote areas of the Himalayas before training to become a medical herbalist, graduating with a first class honours degree from the College of Phytotherapy in 2000. Deborah went on to teach the correspondence course at the college for many years and had her own private practice until 2022. She also worked in Hamblys Herbal Dispensary where she developed protocols to improve traceability and record keeping, some of which have been taken up by the National Institute of Herbal Medicine (NIMH) as the standard for good practice.

Deborah now works in sustainable wild food wedding catering. In such a niche market the skills gained practising herbal medicine have found a natural home guiding couples in creating their own bespoke wedding breakfast. Her skills as a bookkeeper have helped guide the trust to invest the legacy they have been gifted, to help ensure financial stability.

Deborah would love to see the trust working as a unifying force, bringing herbalists together to promote herbal medicine to the wider public.

Jan is one of two non-herbalist trustees. Her voice, as a herbal patient and consumer of herbal medicine, is invaluable. Her background as a lawyer helps to shape the work of the trust, and her ongoing involvement in several top UK universities means that she brings an understanding of the academic world.

Jan’s interest in herbal medicine began as a teenager when she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Once recovered, herbal medicine helped her to find a sense of control over her health again. Later in life, Jan visited her local herbal shop run by Paul and his wife and is still a regular there. Jan sees herbs working alongside conventional medicine as an important way to bolster health so that we can face the serious challenges of life with resilience. She also finds it very useful to understand how to deal with the troublesome ailments of growing older!

The Herbal Trust promotes herbal medicine in all its forms and Jan would like to see clear pathways developed to help people engage with herbs on all levels – from the casual user to the students of the future. She is most excited about funding small projects by motivated individuals who can make a real difference in their own communities. She is looking forward to the trust funding herbal scholarships in the near future and helping newly graduated herbalists set up sustainable practices.

Growing up with legendary herbalist John Hyde as his primary care practitioner, Tony has been familiar with the world of herbs from the tender age of 6. When, at 17 years old he began to contemplate his career, John rang Hein Zeylstra at The School of Herbal Medicine who steered him in the right direction. Tony’s nearly four decades as a medical herbalist and member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (NIMH) has seen him put his considerable energy into being a practitioner, teacher, clinical trainer, NIMH council member and to specialise as a manufacturer of herbal medicines in the UK and North America. He has founded and managed several businesses on both continents, including The Herbal Apothecary; The Tree House Centre for Complementary and Collaborative Medicine; Proline Botanicals (Herbs In A Bottle) and The Botanical Extract Company.

In 2015  Tony co-founded Planta Medica with his wife Sue. This unique herbal medicine co-operative supplies high quality herbal medicines to practitioners, reconnecting herbalists with plants and the people who make their medicines. Planta Medica’s cooperative structure has brought a fresh perspective on manufacture for the herbal community and their financial support for herbal projects means that Tony has gained valuable experience in managing grass roots funding.

Tony has been a great advocate of herbal education and now that Heartwood is well established, Tony’s future focus for the trust is to help improve the visibility and professionalism of medical herbalists, encourage the entrepreneurial aspirations of practitioners and ensure that the profession takes its rightful place in the world of healthcare.