Our Board
SAMANTHA (SAM) BLACKLEY
Sam is an experienced television producer whose credits include series such as Hospice Heroes about palliative care, and two series of The Restaurant that Makes Mistakes, where she first worked with people living with Young Onset Dementia and their families.
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Since then, she has become increasingly aware of the lack of age-appropriate opportunities for people post diagnosis as well as the lack of support for their carers. This prompted her to become involved in a personal capacity with the Young Onset Dementia Collective.
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Sam is also an experienced Trustee for Auckland Refugee Family Trust, a charity that raises and distributes funds to pay for airfares to reunite the families of refugee background people living in New Zealand. In 2025 she commenced postgraduate studies in Mental Health Sector Leadership.
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AMANDA BISHOP
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Amanda is from the UK and came to New Zealand in her early 20s.
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Here she studied Medicine at Auckland University and subsequently became a GP, working for most of her career in South Auckland.
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Amanda and Ian married in 1994. He was a teacher before moving into the business world. He was very creative and became a highly respected Marketing manager, well known for his innovative campaigns. He was also very talented in sports and shared this passion with their two children, Josh and Brooke.
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In 2018 Ian was diagnosed with Young Onset Dementia. He died just 4 years later, in November 2022. Even with Amanda’s knowledge as a GP they had struggled to find age- appropriate services and care, and this was made all the more challenging by Ian’s physical fitness and ability; he did not fit into any of the existing dementia care environments.
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During his illness Amanda became involved with various YOD support groups.
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Since Ian’s death, and Amanda’s subsequent retirement, she has become a passionate supporter of the YOD Collective and is excited to work with them to achieve age specific services, support and care for those with YOD and their families.
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She brings both a deep knowledge of lived experience of YOD as well as her medical perspective as a family doctor.
In retirement Amanda has also trained as a yoga teacher and her focus is on making yoga more accessible to those who are less mobile and/or cognitively impaired.
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AMANDA (MANDY) EVERALL
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Mandy has a background in the manufacturing and retail industries which has given her a depth of experience in management, leadership and delivering results. Her lengthy career exposed her to many different countries, ethnicities and ways of getting things done.
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Caring and empathy come naturally to Mandy. Helping others has always been an important part of who she is as person. Her volunteering journey started when she retired in 2022 when she joined Amitabha Hospice as a support carer. From there she helped run a number of community pop-ups, work experience support and community events.
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Today you will find her the lead and facilitator of the Young Onset Dementia Collective volunteer session every Monday. She also helps Fair Food with a number of their community-based programmes including cooking education for a ‘Young Mum’s Group’ and school training programmes.
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Mandy has learned a lot while working alongside people with dementia and is passionate about a role managing community-based services with the Young Onset Dementia Collective.
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ANNE LOGAN
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Anne Logan has a background of publishing, marketing, communications, event management and senior management in both legal and accountancy firms.
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She is the co-owner of Oceania Media Limited with her husband Innes who had a successful career in media and publishing until diagnosed with young onset Alzheimer’s in 2019 at the age of 54.
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Together they published Spasifik magazine which was a first for the Pacific community published over 15 years. Innes diagnosis changed everything, Anne quickly became the driving force behind The Young Onset Dementia Collective.
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Not close to retirement age, financial commitments mean Anne still runs several businesses including communications and content management of MSD’s Pasefika Proud’s website.
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Anne and Innes quickly found a lack of age-appropriate services for YOD people and their whanau, so her attention is also firmly focused on improving outcomes, raising awareness and creating age-appropriate opportunities and choice for Innes and the growing number of YOD people who deserve nothing less.
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Anne lives in a multi-generational house with Innes, her mother who is in her nineties, son Ben, daughter-in-law Kelly and grandson Max along with 2 dogs and a cat. Never a dull moment.