Podcast / 20 February, 2024 / Christina Walter
Today I am talking with Andy Cook, Chief Executive at Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity, where he is responsible for overseeing the charity’s progress over the coming years. The Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity supports people with dyslexia to bring about positive changes in their lives. Established in 1971, the charity removes barriers to learning and life for children, young people and adults with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties by providing expert, personal and life-changing support.
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About Andy Cook, CEO, Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity
Andy is Chief Executive at Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity, where he is responsible for overseeing the charity’s progress over the coming years. Particular areas of focus are to increase the charity’s ability to offer its services to more people with dyslexia across the UK and to help more people from lower-income backgrounds.
Previously, Andy was Chief Executive at Canine Partners, a charity which provides assistance dogs to people with physical disabilities, both civilians and members of the armed forces. Andy started his career at another charity, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, where he was one of a handful of staff to grow the charity from small beginnings to become the largest provider of hearing
dogs in the world.
In his spare time, Andy has completed various charity challenges including the London Marathon and cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats. He has also won several national working gundog
competitions, and taking part in a study to prove that dogs can detect cancer in humans.
Andy graduated from Cambridge University in 1988 with a degree in Modern Languages, specialising in Italian. There is dyslexia in Andy’s family, affecting his mother, grandmother and wider family. He is married with two stepchildren, one of whom is dyslexic and a former beneficiary of the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity’s services.
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