Interviews | Posted on May 21st, 2025 | return to news
Your Voice | Dorset Podcast Episode 5: Sam Everard and Wayne Ingram
Listen to the latest episode with Sam Everard and Wayne Ingram from the Bournemouth-based SAMEE charity.
Sam Everard has had an eventful year. The founder and CEO of the Bournemouth-based charity SAMEE (Support and Mentoring Enabling Entrepreneurship), which helps people with disabilities start their own businesses, was named one of the most influential disabled individuals in the UK in the Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 list in November. Then SAMEE won a prestigious global award, meaning she got to go to Austria for the award ceremony. Then she found out she was being invited to speak in the Austrian Parliament about her work.
We invited Sam onto Your Voice | Dorset Podcast to talk more about these achievements and how the charity has grown since it was founded in 2016.
Over the past nine years, SAMEE has helped almost 2,000 disabled people across Dorset and beyond, with around one in four successfully starting their own business.
Sam came onto the podcast with Wayne Ingram, chief impact officer for the charity, whom she has known for 25 years.
“We did a measurement last year, and around 47 per cent were still trading nine years later, so whatever we’re doing, [it] is really great support,” he said.
Sam herself is disabled as she has myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), which she talks about on the podcast.
“My mobility is the worst. I went from walking 12 miles down the beach, to using sticks, and now I am an ambulatory wheelchair user,” she said.
In March, Sam travelled to Vienna in Austria to receive a Zero Project award for the charity’s supported internship scheme. SAMEE was chosen from among 522 nominations from 90 countries.
Sam shared a delightful story from the trip, which involved meeting a dog called Dave at the British embassy and dog-shaped biscuits — but you’ll have to listen to the podcast to hear the rest.
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