User:Carol Coombes

Carol Lesley Coombes (born Carol Lesley Quinton ( December 9 1962) was the first person in history to be awarded an OBE citing leadership. She is also the first public figure in the UK to openly admit to using Cannabis Oil, along with other traditional therapies, calling on the UK to assess, test and evidence this as

Diagnosed with a rare and aggressive Squamous Cell Carcinoma in February 2017, she declined radiation and chemotherapy, planning to rebuild the immune system with more traditional healing methods, including the use of Cannabis Oil Carol 'outed herself' at a Tedx talk in Birmingham UK [http://www.tedxbrum.com/live-

LIve Stream #Perspectives — TEDxBrum ‪www.tedxbrum.com‬ TIMINGS. The day will be packed with inspiring talks and performances, broken down into four sessions (with refreshment breaks and lunch in between) to give your ... ] inviting scientists to use her as a ' Lab Rat' to evidence an alternative way to seek to manage the illness, citing the unsustainability to the world of the implications of current treatment.

She also called for Birmingham to become the world's first Well City, using traditional methods to protect citizens from harm wrought by modern living and chemicals.

Born Carol Quinton December 9 1962 Birmingham England UK Died ..

Occupation
 * Strengths based leadership Consultant, Coach and facilitator
 * Social Justice Campaigner
 * First Public Figure in UK to act as medical Cannabis Oil User Advocate

Years active 1977-

Partners

Paul Coombes; (- 1993) Malcolm OConnor ; (2011-  ) ( saxophonist, Cracked Actors)

Children

Lisa-Marie (Binki) Coombes (1980) Rikki-Lee Coombes (1982) Shannen Coombes (1987) Taryn Coombes (1988)

Grandchildren 5 Jake Coombes Alex Adams Theo Coombes Cleo Darby Marley McPike

And 4 step grandchildren

She was born in 1962, fourth daughter to Rose Quinton, a very active community volunteer in Birmingham.

A proud, working class Brummie,in 1976 Carol became one of the UKs first punk rockers. This identified to her a movement she classed as making the systems fit the people, rather than the people fit the systems, a value she's protected her whole life.

Carol began volunteering in 1977 at playgroups and nurseries, and immediately began to try to establish workers rights. She was sacked from her first job in a factory for trying to set up a union there, to secure decent working conditions such as toilet breaks throughout the day.

Her first paid role was in developing social enterpris Her first paid role was in developing social enterprises in Ladywood, a disadvantaged area of Birmingham. She conceived and developed several initiatives, including a community nursery, the UK's first mobile crèche, and a furniture recycling project. From there, she took on roles supporting regional and national development of social enterprises before planning and leading the turnaround of the Citizens Advice Bureaux in Birmingham. This was at the time one of the largest advice structures in the world, and Carol worked with other countries across the world to establish support systems and rights for citizens around the world.

During this time Carol also advised the Lord Chancellors Department about the development of the Legal Services Commission, and ran the campaign to protect the CABx, guiding them to their longest period of sustainability in their 60 year history.

Throughout this time, Carol had a number of leadership roles, creating opportunities for people to become active in their societies based upon what they do most easily and instinctively

Her leadership work spanned from community development work in Birmingham, establishing several long running social enterprises, to representing Leadership in decision making [https://www.egi.co.uk/news/birmingham-forget-the-northern-powerhouse/

EGi - News Article - Birmingham, forget the northern ... ‪www.egi.co.uk‬ Birmingham needs to “forget about the northern powerhouse”, EG’s Question Time event in the city was told last night. Citibase chief executive Steve Jude told ... ] to successfully establishing and leading a number of campaigns, including to free a man jailed in what Private Eye called 'The biggest miscarriage of justice in British History' [http://www.mojuk.org.uk/2003/GaryCritchley.html

Justice for Gary Critchley - A Bleeding Scandal ‪www.mojuk.org.uk‬ Justice for Gary Critchley "England is a supposed model of democracy and justice, yet ironically I have so far been made to serve longer for being rebellious and non ...Carol developed a company called Cracking Leadership to make the most of people's natural talents pragmatically, in ways that most benefit society and was awarded in 2009 what pundits cite as the first O.B.E in history that cites Leadership, as well as her Charitable work (https://brimmin.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/birmingham-women-recognised-in-queens-birthday-honours-list/; http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/sutton-charity-founder-gurdev-kaur-95678]

Carol was the Only woman of colour to be featured in the first ever West Midlands Power List, recognising her disproportionate impact in the Region.

Carol was later awarded a Doctorate from BCU for her outstanding contribution to business,, having devised a number of successful strengths based leadership programmes used all over the world, before being diagnosed with Cancer in 2017

References

Links http://www.tedxbrum.com/live- www.tedxbrum.com‬ https://www.egi.co.uk/news/birmingham-forget-the-northern-powerhouse/ http://www.mojuk.org.uk/2003/GaryCritchley.htmlhttps://brimmin.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/birmingham-women-recognised-in-queens-birthday-honours-list/; http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/sutton-charity-founder-gurdev-kaur-95678 http://www.bcu.ac.uk/news-events/news/leading-business-coach-to-be-honoured-with-university-award