Barry Stickings MBE Founder of BAAM

BAAM is an support group Barry wanted to establish for many years. Its function and aim to bring families together who have been soley affected by Bilateral Anophthalmia. Now  after his retirement in 2016 he has the time to fulfill this passion. He wants to continue to help others whose families have a member(s) with Bilateral Anophthlamia.

Barry & Kelly's son Toby was born in 1989 with Bilateral Anophthlamia and at that time there was no support or real knowledge of other families to turn too. Barry became involved in supporting children with Bilateral Anophthalmia after attending a meeting organized by the Observer Sunday Newspaper in London in 1994.  The Observer provided that lifeline by bringing other families together. This was the start of the MACS charity.  MACS is a support group and charity established by a group of parents after that meeting in 1994

Barry became a member of MACS Microphthalmia, Anophthalmia & Coloboma Support  in 1996, he then became an active member first as an Observer then trustee and was then appointed as Chairman a role he held  for 9 years until 2016 when he stood down. This role gave him a true sense of helping others whose children had visual impairments. This was a role he was sad to leave. Barry is still an active supporter of MACS.

In 2018  Barry was awarded an MBE, Member of the British Empire from HRH Prince Charles (now HRH King Charles) for his services and work for children born with a visual impairment. This related to his time as a Trustee and Chairman of MACS. 

Barry's working career started in the Film industry in 1977 working for Medicine Film & Sound 142 both film editing production companies. 

In 1979 he joined Cinema International Corperation covering Motion Picture publicity and distribution for Paramount, Universal and MGM Studios. 

He then worked overseas for over three years in the USA, Far & Middle East and Europe for an international Onboard Mail Courier company IML. This involved spending over 3 weeks a month travelling overseas. 

In 1986 Barry joined the Metropolitan Police Force in London as a Police Officer. He served across London based at various stations and later within several specialist crime units. 

In June 2016 Barry retired and moved from London to Kent with Kelly and Toby to live by the sea. As a family they continue regular theatre trips plus giving Toby lots of life experiences with his girlfriend Justine which includes travel across the world on a regular basis. 

Barry currently works part time for Kent Association For the Blind as driver and Community Support officer on the mobile sight service IRIS covering the entire Kent county.     

WE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR HELP SO IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE PART OF OUR ADMIN TEAM THEN PLEASE CONTACT BARRY via admin@baam.org.uk FOR MORE INFORMATION