Tribute to Adam Wilson, SLT’s Fundraising Manager
Adam Wilson, SLT’s Fundraising Manager, very sadly died suddenly on 21st January 2026. He passed away peacefully in his sleep. He was suffering with a serious and progressive health condition.
Adam was appointed to the Fundraising Manager post at SLT, by the previous Chief Executive Hannah Kalmanowitz and our Trustee June-Anne Murray in 2019.
Adam was a kind person, who cared for his local community. One of our funders recently described him well as a “lovely, courteous and gentle man, and a sincere and effective advocate for SLT.” I can see why he worked in the charity sector for many years and also in unpaid roles as trustee.
Adam had served as Trustee of The London Wildlife Trust for 7 years, and was still serving as a Trustee at Worrall and Fuller, a charity supporting education for young people in need in Islington. Adam’s previous fundraising roles including the ICA, Southbank Centre and vInspired, a charity helping young people into employment. Alongside his role at SLT, he worked as a fundraiser of Healthy Generations, an Islington charity promoting health and wellbeing for older people.
Adam visibly loved and cared about this work. He raised tens of thousands of pounds for SLT’s programmes, helping hundreds of isolated people experiencing mental health issues.
He was a highly creative person and liked to share his creativity.
He loved Islington, being rich in culture, music, theatre and artistic heritage. He expressed this creativity at SLT through his fundraising work, writing grant applications and contributing to the design of our programmes of activity.
Every year, we got together with Adam at his home for a staff Christmas meal. At one of our visits to Adam’s house about three years ago, Adam’s love of music and fundraising role came together, as we talked about the idea of writing and composing an original Christmas single.
We are fortunate at SLT that our Finance Manager Jay is a professional singer-songwriter, and so the ideas for the SLT Christmas single, to be called Guiding Star, were formed. Adam contributed the theme of Guiding Star, about finding light and hope in dark times – the purpose of SLT. Owing to Adam’s deteriorating health, Jay completed the lyrics and
musical composition, which was recorded at Universal Recording Studios, mixed at Abbey Lane studios and performed in a brilliant and professionally produced music video. The single has raised around £10,000 so far – and a lasting legacy of Adam.
Adam had a love and interest in nature, expressed also creatively – and through his fundraising work. When we visited Adam’s home, he worked overlooking the garden and would enjoy naming all the myriad of birds, who would visit this tranquil green space. Every year, when we got together with Adam at his home for a staff Christmas meal, we would always admire the many beautiful bird ornaments on the Christmas tree. Sarah, Adam’s wife, was often present when we visited, to make sure all the arrangements were in place. I was always touched by the love and care which Sarah showed and expressed for Adam.
And we enjoyed our welcome by their sweet dog Barney.
Before I started at SLT, Adam had designed and applied to the Lottery for an excellent partnership project called Natural Resilience, bringing together different specialist charities to engage people with nature, to benefit their health and wellbeing resilience. Adam was passionate about the value of this project, and was frustrated every time the Lottery rejected the project application, which was several times – right up until he passed away.
I strongly associate Natural Resilience with Adam, and in many ways, it reflected him. He loved nature and the cultural richness of many green spaces locally. He wanted to bring people together to collaborate and build social connections. He wanted to continue leading a meaningful life with purpose by helping others, despite the progressive impact of his Parkinson’s.
He needed resilience to keep going in his fundraising role. When he joined SLT, his health condition had been diagnosed, but he was still fully active. When I started at SLT in 2022, Adam could only work from home and his health limited his fundraising work. It was heart-breaking for me to see his health struggles become worse over these years: his voice fading to a whisper; his typing tortuously slow; and gradually losing his mobility.
Despite all these barriers, Adam never lost his passion for his fundraising work. He would always have an enthusiastic twinkle in his eye, talking in an animated way about SLT’s work, the needs of people in the Islington community and his creative interests. He never lost his endearing smile. He never lost his sense of humour.
I will remember Adam for this, his kind and generous heart – what is more important in life than this.
Our heartfelt condolences and deepest sympathy go out to Adam’s wife Sarah and his family.
Mark Gillham
Chief Executive
The Stuart Low Trust
