Remembering Peter Garside

Aphasia Support is saddened to announce the death of our former Chair of Trustees, Peter Garside.

Peter was a founding member of our charity and is credited with creating the idea behind Aphasia Support, formally known as Speak with IT, all those years ago. He was Chair of Trustees from the charity’s inception in 2011 until retirement in 2019.

Peter was a unique chairman because he had aphasia after a stroke in 2000. He understood deeply the needs of the people the charity supported and it’s fair to say that without the drive and commitment of people like Peter our charity would simply not exist today.

James Major, CEO of Aphasia Support, started working with the charity while Peter was Chairman. James reflects on Peter’s enormous contribution to Aphasia Support: 

"Speak With IT was created by a group of people who were on a mission. They felt that the long term support available for people with aphasia was simply not good enough. Instead of sitting on their hands, they chose to do something about it. For this reason, people like Peter Garside should be applauded. It is through their vision and their drive that many hundreds of people with aphasia have been given hope for the future.

The idea behind the home-based one to one support we provide today came from Peter and his wife, Pip. Back in the 2000s, they trialled the use of computer therapy.  Instead of Pip providing support, Peter received regular one to one home visits from a volunteer in their village who was considering a career in speech and language therapy. This simple concept of pairing a person with aphasia with a volunteer who is local to them became core to the charity’s work and continues to this day."

Andrea Reas, currently serving as a trustee for Aphasia Support, said:

"I was so saddened to hear about Peter's death. Alongside Graham Johnson, it was Pip and Peter Garside who were my first introduction to the fantastic work of the charity. Despite having a stroke which severely affected his speech, Peter played a massive role at board level as the Chair of Trustees for many years. With just 2 or 3 words, and in a slow manner, Peter got his message across in the meetings. When he spoke you could see the careful planning of his words and he was always worth listening to."

At the request of Peter's family, we would like to share details of Peter's funeral which will be held on Monday 16th February 2026. For those who would like to request further information about the venue and the time please contact us on info@aphasiasupport.org

Image: Peter Garside photographed at St John’s Bishop Monkton Parish Church, where he played the organ for many years.