Following a successful career in the city as an IT consultant former OCD sufferer Ashley Fulwood came up with the initial idea for this new and unique OCD Charity at the end of November 2003.
A chance meeting the following week with sufferer and businessman Steve Sharpe the idea for the new charity was pitched and again met with complete enthusiasm for the idea, so much so that Steve provided financial backing to help get the charity launched.
Both felt that OCD was still not widely recognised and that a more proactive approach was needed to bring the problems faced by people suffering with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder into the public spotlight.
And that 10 days was the beginning of OCD-UK.
Steve and Ashley felt the key to the success of the charity would be to get sufferers actively involved in the running of it, they felt that by feeling part of the charity the members would be more likely to offer their support, and without that, the charity would fail.
During early December, Ashley was introduced to OCD expert, Dr Jeffrey Schwartz, author of the book Brain Lock and after several hours discussing the needs for UK based sufferers Dr Schwartz gave his backing and total support to the new charity.
In response to those ideas a committee was established to allow the charity to move forward. That meeting took place in the offices of Endeavour Financial on New Bond Street, London on 7th January 2004. During that meeting it was decided the name of the charity would be OCD UK, written OCD-UK for greater impact. The charity constitution document was also drawn up for submission to the Charities Commission.
On the 26th of January 2004 an online Bulletin Board was set up for two dual purposes, firstly to allow sufferers to communicate with each other and offer each other support and advice. Secondly to allow those sufferers to shape the way their charity develops and have a say in the decisions relating to the forming of OCD-UK.
OCD-UK officially became a registered charity on the 14th April 2004, although the executive committee decided to hold off launching the charity officially until they had everything in place.
Initially everyone was giving their time voluntarily, but during March and April it became clear to Ashley and Steve that OCD-UK was going to be huge and to move forward it needed someone working full time so Ashley decided with the financial help of Steve that he would quit his stable, full time job in London to concentrate 100% on the charity.
It was also decided that Ashley would relocate back to his native Nottinghamshire where OCD-UK would be officially based. Being a National charity having a more centrally based location was very important.
Ashley was appointed chief executive and Steve Sharpe became the Chairman of OCD-UK.
The charity officially launched itself to the public in August 2004 and since then it has gone from strength to strength.
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