Carol Boys is Chief Executive of the Down’s Syndrome Association (DSA) UK. Her interest in Down syndrome began when her son Alex was born with the condition in 1983.
Having been a strong supporter of the local DSA group, Carol was elected as a Trustee of DSA UK in 1988 and served as Chair of Trustees for 6 years.
In 1996, Carol was asked by the Trustees of DSA UK to take on the role of Chief Executive following the departure of the previous Director. Having been assured that she would only have to take on the role for 6 months, she accepted, and 14 years later Carol is still there!
Since her appointment, Carol has built a strong team around her at DSA UK and the organisation prides itself that it speaks on behalf of people with Down syndrome and their families throughout the UK. DSA UK has in excess of 20,000 members and supporters and the numbers are growing all the time. Two of the current members of the Board of Trustees of DSA UK have Down syndrome and the organisation has a significant number of employees with the condition.
A unique opportunity for DSA UK to move to the family home of Dr John Langdon Down came in 2004 when Carol managed to secure the historic premises following the purchase of the whole site around the building by her husband’s company for development. Today, the Langdon Down Centre remains their UK Headquarters and in 2009 they invited Down Syndrome International (DSi) to also base their organisation here, which DSi gratefully accepted.
Carol is a founding Trustee of the Philip Green Memorial School, which provides a residential education for students with learning disabilities based in Dorset, England. Her experience as a Trustee of several other organisations in the UK has given Carol a wider experience of learning disability and she is a founding member of the UK Learning Disability Coalition. Carol is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.
