Page 86 - Powerlist 2019 - Digital Edition

Public Sector & Third Sector Patricia Gallan

Former Assistant Commissioner, Specialist Crime
and Operations, Metropolitan Police

It’s been a pivotal year for Patricia. After 31 years in the Met
Police, she announced her retirement at the end of August.
Met Commissioner Cressida Dick said: “Not only has Pat
given so much to the Met, as the first black woman to reach
the rank of Chief Constable she has been a role model and
provided inspiration and coaching support to a great many
more junior colleagues across the Met and more widely.”
Her resignation ended a career in which she became the
most senior ethnic minority female officer in the history of
the British police force, and one where she was tipped to
become Commissioner.
She joined the Met in 1987 and served as a uniformed
officer in Stoke Newington, East London, later going on to
train as a detective.
As a barrister and trained hostage negotiator, she worked
her way up the career ladder and was the Assistant Chief
Constable of Merseyside Police from February 2006 to 2012,
and temporary Deputy Chief Constable of the force from
October 2009 to February 2010. Between 2012 and 2015,
she was Deputy Assistant Commissioner, where she was
Beverley and Orin Lewis in charge of the probe into the so-called “Plebgate” affair,
involving the altercation between Andrew Mitchell, the then
Founders, ACLT Government Chief Whip, and police.
Patricia said she wanted to tackle the inequalities
that lead people to feel like they “don’t have a stake in
Husband-and-wife power couple Beverley and Orin are the society”, adding: “I think that is not good for society, for
founders of the ACLT, one of Britain’s leading blood cancer social cohesion, but also it is not good if people do not feel
charities. They are also the winners of this year’s inaugural they have the stake in society. We have to look at and ask
EY Cornerstone Award. ourselves individually and collectively: why do people feel
They recently led on a project entitled, “Black Lives Do they do not have a stake in society? Because once you are
Matter: Changing attitudes about Living Organ Donation involved in crime and once you go into the criminal justice
within the Black Community”, a ground-breaking project system, it starts to get far more difficult for you, whether it is
that targeted the African and Caribbean communities in staying out of prison or getting a job.”
the south London boroughs of Lambeth, Lewisham and Her accolades include the Queen’s Police Medal and her
Croydon. ACLT engaged with donors and recipients from the role in the investigation into the murder of Rhys Jones in
community to develop an outreach programme to increase 2007 was turned into an ITV drama called Little Boy Blue.
the number of living kidney transplants. Hailed as a success,
the project has been commissioned for a second round.
A personal tragedy led the couple to set up the
organisation. In 1996, they discovered their eight-year-old
son Daniel would need life-saving stem cell transplant to
treat his acute leukaemia. The figures didn’t look good – out
of nearly 300,000 potential bone marrow donors, there were
only 550 black or mixed-race people registered. It meant that
the odds for Daniel to find a match were only one in 250,000.
The forward-thinking couple decided to launch a
campaign, which turned out to be a success. In 1999, Daniel
became the first black person in Britain to receive a stem cell
transplant from an unrelated donor.
The success, however, was short-lived. Even though
Daniel was able to live a healthy life for many years, he died
when he was 21. Years of chemotherapy and radiotherapy
resulted in multiple organ failure.
Yet the couple weren’t deterred, and have remained
committed to the cause. They have raised the number of
black and mixed-race donors to almost 60,000, have saved
more than 60 lives through finding donor matches, and
raised thousands of pounds for stem cell, blood and organ
donations. Their work was honoured with OBEs in 2011.

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