Our Team
15 Square is comprised of many members, volunteers and supporters who do not appear here. To all of our members and contributors that value their privacy, we thank you. Each and every donor, member and volunteer is deeply appreciated. Our international board of advisors deserve special mention too. All of your support helps us continue on our mission.
Below you can find out more about some of the people who truly make a difference to the continuation of our work, with special mention to our Patron, Alan Cumming.
Alan Cumming
Patron
Alan Cumming is the esteemed patron of 15 Square and we are honoured to have him on board.
Alan is multi-talented actor, comedian, singer, writer, filmmaker, and activist who has acted in numerous films, television shows, and plays.
In truth however, he is so much more! He has received over forty awards for his humanitarianism and social activism, three honorary doctorates, both the Great Scot and Icon of Scotland awards from his homeland and has been recognised for his contributions to the arts and LBGT equality within his own country and overseas.
As well as campaigning for LGBTQ+ equality and HIV charities, he is also outspoken against male circumcision, having raised awareness for many years.
“I never thought anything about my foreskin, and then I came to America and I was having sex and people would just be gasping because they’d never seen a foreskin before. I was made to feel weird and freakish because I had an intact body.”
Recently, Alan has raised the issue of circumcision with his dear friend Miriam Margolyes, who has openly expressed her sympathy in questioning circumcision.
Dr John Warren
Founder & President
Dr John Warren realised that there was a need for a UK organisation to support circumcised men after he read the book ‘The Joy of Uncircumcising’ by Jim Bigelow. Following the publication of a letter in The Independent in October, 1994 nineteen men met in a flat in London and an organisation was formed, initially named NORM-UK after the National Organisation of Restoring Men based in the USA.
John is a retired Consultant Physician. He chaired the organisation from its inception and is now the president and an active Trustee of 15 Square.
David Smith
Chief Officer
David qualified in business studies and worked for a number of international companies before joining the charity sector in 2002. David has previously acted as a trustee for a charity providing public access to heart defibrillators, as well as working for a solvent abuse charity.
David was a lay representative at the Keele University School of Medicine and has spoken at numerous international events including the World Association for Sexual Health. He has organised conferences hosting academics, legal experts and health professionals from around the world.
Tony Peters
Chair
Tony Peters is the Chairman of 15 Square trustee board and is a company director working in the travel and tourism industry. He has been involved with the third sector for all of his professional life, starting as a porter in a local hospital and even tried his hand at hospital radio.
Over the years Tony has been chair and trustee of a number of charities. Tony’s involvement with 15 Square started when he became aware of the organisation in the mid-1990s and began to attend support group meetings.
“This was the very early days and dealing with a subject that was never discussed, but it was heartening to meet and talk with others who had similar issues. Being elected to the committee some while ago and being able to actively participate has been most rewarding, and more recently I was honoured to be elected to the position of Chair and to continue the role that our founder, John Warren, had held since the beginning.”
Since attending his first support group meeting, he has been an enthusiastic advocate for the cause and has been active with 15 Square’s growth and development ever since.
Jason Metters
Deputy CEO
Jason has been with 15 Square since 2016, initially as a volunteer technical consultant, and is now our Deputy CEO.
He has worked internationally in Switzerland, Vietnam, & Germany in financial services, education, and the third sector. He has been involved in numerous philanthropic projects and awareness campaigns, including: child soldiers, slavery, human rights, peace projects, and global poverty.
He holds a directorship in strategy for a film company based in Staffordshire, and currently sits as a member of his towns council acting as Deputy Town Mayor.
“More and more people are starting to recognise the issues of informed consent and decision making in healthcare, which is great to see as I am a big supporter of professional ethics and the important responsibilities that organisations ought to embody. During my MBA, I have been privileged to learn how to apply a strategic approach to orientating 15 Square’s policies and activities.”
Jason also supports open access projects that bring education to everyone, including the internet archive. “Access to wider sources of information can improve society immeasurably.”
Louise Troy
BA (Hons)
Consultant Marketing Manager
Louise Joined 15 Square initially as an intern from Keele University. She now manages all of our marketing and advertising and has worked to raise the profile of the harms of Female Genital Mutilation whilst delivering training to the social care sector.
She is a professional writer and handles all of our day to day content on social media, as well as co-authoring articles for the website, and helping with project management.
Louise has a BA 2:1 in Sociology from Keele University and Diplomas in Childcare & Education as well as Digital Marketing and is accredited by Google in Digital Marketing.
In 2020, Louise transformed our social media presence and has set us on the road to providing a more professional service to members and service users. This has attracted more enquiries from young men troubled by phimosis and the threat of circumcision. Membership has doubled during her time with the charity.
Lesley Roberts
Ambassador
Lesley qualified as a primary school teacher who specialised in teaching French and German. Since the tragic loss of her much loved son, Alex, in November 2017, Lesley has dedicated herself to raising awareness of the psychological impacts of circumcision. The heartbreaking consequences that have impacted Lesley and her family show how important psychological support, awareness and dialogue are for supporting those affected. Alex took his own life following an unnecessary medical circumcision in adulthood.
‘As the mum of 3 sons, I had never heard of the medical condition ‘phimosis’ until the horrific night of my son’s death when I received his last email. He explained that he had been suffering in silence with this painful condition and was advised to have a circumcision. Alex was 21 and knew immediately that this had been a mistake. My dear son lived for 2 more years with pain and dysfunction before taking his own life aged 23. My broken heart will never mend but if Alex’ death can help other young men whilst highlighting the potential risks involved with this procedure, then his death will not have been in vain. As my eloquent, caring, intelligent, witty, hard working, sensitive, wonderful son wrote:
“We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.” – Alex Hardy
Lesley Roberts – A is for Alex
Alex Hardy’s Story
Gaye Blake-Roberts
MBE
Advisor & Volunteer
Dr Gaye Blake-Roberts MBE, is the former director and curator of the Wedgwood Museum, having served for over 40 years. In 2020 she was awarded an MBE for her services to heritage in recognition of her dedication and expertise. She is the President of the College of Fellows at Keele University and is on the board of Staffordshire University Academies Trust. She is also the Chair of AEDdonate, a UK charity working to provide defibrillators for public access.
“As a historian by profession who has worked in museums for my entire career; one might wonder at my involvement with 15 Square.
I do feel strongly that partners need to be as well informed as possible in order to support and actively help those affected by circumcision and in this respect, it is important to involve everyone in raising awareness and understanding.
15 Square provides an unparalleled support service through providing accurate information, teaching, research and support meetings with links worldwide. The importance to the health and well being of men and the support the charity provides to partners must not be underestimated.”
Gaye is a trusted advisor for 15 Square and an advocate for education and support.
Trustees
Richard Duncker
Trustee
Richard spent his working life as a videographer for the BBC, a snowboard instructor, and a Yoga teacher. He is now retired and works as a volunteer videographer and trustee for 15 Square, producing educational videos for the voluntary sector on the subject of protecting children from non-therapeutic genital alteration.
Richard is very pleased to have helped produce the videos “Restoration in focus” and “Phimosis” as well as our Real People, Real Stories Project
“When I was a young child I asked the question; ‘why is mine different?’ I was given the answer ‘To avoid trouble later on and for social reasons.’ At the time I accepted this as reasonable.Arriving at boarding school I swiftly realised that I was missing quite a lot. I then started to regret what had been done to me and that has been with me ever since. Joining NORM-UK/15 Square in late middle age helped me come to terms with my fate and to turn a glass half empty into a glass half full. I am convinced that I am in the right place doing the right thing with the right people.”
Duncan Marshall
Hon. Treasurer
Duncan is a Trustee and is the charity’s volunteer Treasurer. He worked for Barclays Bank for 40 years and has provided the charity with efficient, safe and time-saving systems for its finances, providing the Board with up to date management figures as and when required.
Duncan keeps a keen professional eye on the charities finances and has been our treasurer for three years.
Dr. Peter Ball
MA, MB, BChir, DA, DObst RCOG
Vice Chair
Peter joined our team in 1996 and he obtained his doctorate from Cambridge University.
He is a retired GP and works as our ‘Contact our Doctor’ advisor. As well as answering medical queries from our service users, Peter is also our resident expert on non-surgical foreskin restoration techniques.
Peter works to promote accurate health information on the care and functions of the foreskin and helping people to avoid unnecessary genital surgery.
James Battrick
Trustee
James has been a Trustee for 15 Square since 2016. Outside of his involvement with 15 Square, James is involved with social justice and community development, in particular; equality, diversity and inclusion. James is the chief officer of SAGE – Sexuality And Gender Empowerment, a UK charity focusing on LGBT+ issues. His insights in counselling and experiences with people experience mental health challenges have helped 15 Square understand the needs of our service users better.
Leeanne Morris
MSc, MBACP
Trustee
Leeanne is a Trauma-informed psychotherapeutic counsellored therapist with over 20 years experience of working with frontline emergency services and the NHS. She also counsels survivors of sexual violence and domestic abuse for a national charity. She works with a large range of issues including anxiety, burn out, grief, trauma, male and female survivors of sexual abuse, circumcision and domestic abuse.
Leeanne passionately believes that everyone has something in them to value and nurture and that no one is beyond help. She believes everyone deserves a chance to be happy and to live a rich and peaceful life. She understands it is not always easy asking for help.
Neil Walbran
Trustee
Neil has served as the Chief Officer of Healthwatch Manchester since its creation in 2013. He is a graduate of Lancaster University, holds a Professional Certificate in Management from the Open University and a Diploma in Volunteers Management from Dundee University.
Neil has worked in health and social care for over thirty years leading work in project management, infrastructure development and contracting & commissioning. He is a member of the British Humanist Association and a fitness enthusiast who enjoys hiking and boxing.
Dr Antony Lempert
MBBS MRCGP
Trustee
Antony first became involved in challenging medically unnecessary penile
circumcision in 2008 via his role as coordinator, later chair of the (UK) Secular
Medical Forum (SMF).
The SMF works to protect patients from the imposition on them of other people’s religious beliefs- ritual circumcision being a prime example of such harm. In 2018, the SMF merged into the National Secular Society (NSS) on whose council of management Antony now sits.
The NSS has since designated circumcision as one of its campaign areas. In 2025, he retired from his GP
partnership to make more time for campaigning.
Antony chaired the Shropshire division of the British Medical Association (BMA) for 9 years from 2016 and was a BMA representative from 2009 to 2024.
His 2024 published peer-reviewed paper: Roadblocks to reforming UK guidelines on medically unnecessary penile circumcision: inconsistent safeguarding of bodily integrity – Antony Lempert, 2024 documents the considerable barriers he and others have faced from within the UK medical profession whilst trying to encourage doctors and others to apply standard child safeguarding and medical ethical norms to the practice of ritual circumcision.
He has also co-authored several related papers. He gives regular talks and has featured on TV and radio, including a BBC Newsnight interview in 2018 to discuss Iceland’s proposal to extend genital cutting protections to boys as well as girls. In 2024, he became chair of the Health Policy Working Group of the
(England and Wales) Green Party. Since 2019, Antony has taught postgraduate medical ethics to trainee GPs. He is a keen outdoor swimmer, cyclist and tennis player, grows some vegetables and sings with The Men from Off, a fairly close harmony group of blokes who unexpectedly found themselves singing together for pleasure and occasional performances.
Advisors
15 Square has an international advisory board specialising in law, psychotherapy, ethics, education, healthcare, and the charity sector. We are proud of our international collaboration and always welcome opportunities to network with experts worldwide.