Speaker

Danny Lawson

Trustee, Education Leader & Advocate | Do Radio Guest, It's Not About Trees with John Lunn

Catch Danny on Do Radio: It's Not About Trees with John Lunn 15-21st December 2025.

Danny Lawson is a thoughtful, quietly powerful leader whose work sits at the intersection of justice, childhood, mental health, and community resilience. A trustee of the Carole & Geoffrey Lawson Foundation, Danny has spent much of her life working behind the scenes to support organisations and individuals who care for those too often left out of public conversations — vulnerable children, young people facing mental health challenges, and families navigating complex health needs.

Her worldview is shaped by a childhood lived between cultures. Danny’s father, Ralph Haems, was one of Britain’s most respected and uncompromising defence solicitors — a man who believed fiercely in justice, fairness, and standing up for people who had no voice. Her mother, a German who arrived in the UK after the war, carried a different kind of resilience. Growing up within this mix of cultures, expectations, and contradictions, Danny developed an instinctive empathy for people who sit on the margins or fall between systems.

This perspective runs through her leadership. As Chair of Governors in a London multi-academy trust, she championed safe spaces, arts and music, and emotional literacy — advocating for what she calls “the quiet infrastructure of care.” She has been outspoken about the storm gathering in secondary education: rising pressures, shrinking resources, and ambition being “knocked out” of young people far too early.

Danny is also deeply connected to initiatives that rebuild confidence and dignity through community — from the Lang Lang Foundation’s musical programmes to Climb2Recovery (supporting wounded and traumatised veterans) and FEAR, whose “Eddie the Van” brings safe, mobile support to children with tube-feeding needs.

Her philosophy is simple but profound: be decent, be curious, and embrace the grey. It is in the grey, she argues, that collaboration happens — and where real change begins.

Show Notes

In this reflective and quietly powerful conversation, John speaks with Danny Lawson, trustee of the Carole & Geoffrey Lawson Foundation and long-time advocate for children’s wellbeing, mental health, and community-based support. Danny’s worldview is shaped by a childhood lived between cultures: her father, Ralph Haems, was one of Britain’s leading defence solicitors, defending clients others wouldn’t touch; her mother, who arrived from Germany in post-war Britain, carried her own form of resilience. That blend of backgrounds gave Danny early insight into justice, identity, and what it means to feel like an outsider.

Danny shares how these experiences shaped her philanthropic instincts — choosing to support organisations that help children who fall between systems: those who are misunderstood, overlooked, or unsupported. As a former school governor and chair of a London multi-academy trust, she offers a candid view of the “storm” in British education: rising pressures in secondary schools, shrinking access to arts and safe spaces, and ambition being knocked out of young people far too early. She reflects on the need for small, human interventions — like creating quiet library spaces — that provide safety and headspace.

The episode explores Danny’s commitment to charities that rebuild dignity and confidence: the Lang Lang Foundation, which uses music to open imagination; Climb2Recovery, supporting wounded veterans; and FEAR, whose mobile “Eddie the Van” gives medically complex children access to everyday experiences.

Underlying all of Danny’s work is a philosophy she inherited from her parents: be decent, be curious, and look behind the façade. Her call to action is a rejection of polarisation: “Embrace the grey — it’s the only place collaboration happens.”

A gentle, thoughtful episode about legacy, humanity, and the quiet work of care.