Team Statement
Love of the Game (LOTG) unites the fields of sport, technology, science, academia, and business to identify, invest in, and implement innovative solutions that reduce the health risks faced by athletes across all sports — team or individual, contact or non-contact.
Through Love of the Game’s (LOTG’s) unique network of supporters – representing the UK’s major sports, government, academia, medicine, technology, science, and business – we drive awareness and funding for the research and development of rapid, actionable solutions that prevent, diagnose, and treat concussion and other head injuries.
Guided by our collective passion, goodwill, and expertise, our mission is to reduce and manage concussion-related injuries, ensure the longevity of players’ games and careers, and safeguard the integrity of the sports we know and love. We are driving change through three key pillars of engagement:
Education
Working in partnership with Concussion Toolkit to empower players, coaches and support staff across grassroots sport, schools and universities with concussion awareness and recovery guidance
Technology
Supporting innovations and start-ups that advance concussion prevention, diagnosis, and management, and fostering new ideas through hackathons and collaborative challenges.
Research
Raising funds to advance concussion research and support new studies, partnerships and trials, including work delivered through the UK Concussion Research Network, to improve player welfare across all levels of sport.
Together, these pillars strengthen our shared goal: to protect every player, preserve the joy of sport, and build a safer future for generations to come.
Our Envisioned Future
Solution
Recent research shows that when we identify brain injury earlier, we can better manage its effects — and even repair damage to the brain’s vascular system. Advances in science, technology, and medicine have already made sport safer and continue to reduce risks for players everywhere. The impact of concussion reaches far beyond professional athletes — it affects everyone who plays, from children just starting out to lifelong club members still competing past sixty. Those small, repeated knocks can add up over time, and every player deserves protection. But we’re not here just to raise awareness — we’re here to find solutions. We want to protect the sports we love, not change them; to make them safer, smarter, and more enjoyable for everyone who plays.
Action
We are deeply sympathetic to former players seeking support and redress for the long-term effects of concussion. However, we believe that action and innovation — not litigation — will safeguard the future of sport. The danger of legal battles is that they can discourage participation and diminish the games that bring us together. Instead, we can solve this problem through science, education, and collaboration. By driving progress in research, technology, and awareness, we can protect players and preserve the joy of sport for generations to come. We are academics, scientists, players, medics, entrepreneurs, families, and fans — united by one belief: that every player deserves to play safely, for the love of the game.
Meet the Team
President Simon Shaw MBE
Simon is a former England and British and Irish Lions rugby player. He played in the domestic game for Bristol and then Wasps, starting in 1990. He finished his rugby career with two years at Toulon. Simon won 71 caps with England between 1996 and 2011, and 2 for the British and Irish Lions with whom he toured three times. Simon is one of the founders of Love of the Game, driven by his own experiences of head injuries during his playing career.
Chair of Trustees Stuart Bagshaw MBE
After starting his career in the Royal Air Force where he worked on airborne RADAR, communications and computer systems, Stuart went on to hold c-suite positions at multiple international companies, including Apple, Sequent, Xerox, Gemplus and ILOG as well as CEO for 3 venture backed software companies. Thereafter founded Business LEAP and has spent the last 14 years sharing his knowledge championing British and other foreign businesses expanding into the US market. He was the past President and Chairman of the British American Business Council in Northern California and most recently the past President and Chairman of the British American Business Network, Additionally, Stuart served on the board of several charitable organisations including the British American Benevolent Society, Play Rugby USA, the Atlas Foundation Americas and currently Love of the Game.
Co-founder & Trustee Sally Pettipher
Sally Pettipher is Chief of Staff to Sir Richard Evans KCMG and CEO of the Cornish Pirates, a professional rugby club playing in the second tier (Champ League) of English Rugby
Previously, she was Chief Executive of an international rugby charity, the Atlas Foundation, which she took from a start-up to a global enterprise of rugby champions overseeing child welfare and education projects.
She has been a Trustee on a spinal research charity, her local Community Foundation and was a founding Trustee of British Rowing’s Charitable Foundation.
Medical Adviser, Professor Mike Parker BSc, MS, FRCS, FRCS(Ed), FCASE
Professor Mike Parker is a retired consultant surgeon with over 45 years’ experience in the NHS, specialising in laparoscopic and colorectal surgery. After an extensive surgical career, he spent four years training consultants in Denmark, where his work helped establish one of the world’s leading national laparoscopic colorectal programmes. A former Council Member and Vice President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Mike has published over 175 peer-reviewed papers and co-edited two surgical textbooks. He has also held presidencies within multiple national and international surgical societies. Alongside his role as Medical Adviser to Love of the Game, Mike co-founded Sirius Genesis Ltd, a UK-based surgical innovation company. Outside of medicine, he enjoys sailing, jazz piano, and rugby.
Communications Advisor and Trustee Michelle Elkins MBE
Michelle is a communications expert who has led and supported the communications portfolio across many sectors, including the mainstream media, law enforcement, counter-terrorism, local and central Government (both in the UK and abroad), the charity sector, security industry and in the private sector. Michelle joined LOTG as its Communications Advisor and became a trustee in December 2024.
Clinical Advisor Donna Sanderson-Hull
Donna is a Chartered Physiotherapist with 34 years’ experience and a distinction-level MSc in Sport and Exercise Medicine (2006). She has worked in the UK and New Zealand across hospitals, private practice and elite sport, including six seasons as Bristol Rugby Physiotherapist and two years with England Rugby.
Donna founded her own private practice in 2007 and now runs five clinics in Bristol. Since 2018, she has specialised in concussion management, training with completeconcussions.com and works closely with Love of the Game. She now delivers concussion education to GPs, school nurses and physiotherapists alongside running her practices.
Operations Director Millie Puddephatt
Millie Puddephatt is Operations Director at Love of the Game, where she oversees daily operations and helps turn the charity’s vision into action. With a background in Medical Anthropology and Innovation, she brings a human-centred and design-thinking approach to concussion education, technology, and research. Millie is passionate about creating inclusive, practical solutions that make concussion awareness and recovery accessible for everyone.
Business Development Director Pippi Heath
Pippi Heath is the Business Development Director at Love of the Game, where she leads strategic partnerships and outreach to expand access to concussion care across sport. Drawing on her own concussion experiences and a passion for grassroots sport, Pippi is committed to ensuring that every athlete—at every level—receives the support they need to stay safe and stay in the game.
Treasurer, Will David MA FCA
After gaining a degree in PPE from St. Edmund Hall, Oxford Will qualified as a Chartered Accountant before joining The Stock Exchange. He then joined the broking firm of Hoare Govett where he was Director of the Smaller Company Corporate Finance Advisory Team before fulfilling similar roles at PwC and Investec.
In 2001 Will, in modern parlance, went plural and began his own consultancy and acted as non-executive director or chairman of public companies in the media and communications, electronics and medical devices industries.
Will has always had a keen interest in sport, particularly rugby and cricket, and is treasurer of the Kent committee of The Wooden Spoon, Chairman and Treasurer of Knockholt Cricket Club and a debenture holder at the Principality Stadium.
Our Legendary Ambassadors
We are proud to have the support of a range of incredible ambassadors from across the sporting world, who provide advice and encouragement and help deliver our cause.
