John Fitzgerald

Co-Founder and Chairperson

John is the Chair of The Fix It Group 23 and brings decades of experience in both management and community service. A resident of Mountsorrel for over 37 years, he spent 20 years working for Royal Mail in various roles including Postman, Manager, Supervisor, and Health and Safety Officer, followed by five years in the pharmaceutical industry as a Facilities and Health and Safety Manager. After taking semi-retirement, he continued serving the local area by working part-time for Mountsorrel Parish Council, where he was responsible for maintaining the parks and inspecting play equipment as an RPII-certified inspector. He fully retired in 2022 and now also volunteers as a Health and Safety Governor at Long Whatton Primary School. Outside of his leadership role with The Fix It Group 23, John enjoys woodworking, badminton, spending time in Cumbria and with his family, and living life to the full.

Joanne Liversidge

Secretary and Events & Publicity Manager

Joanne serves as the Secretary and Events & Publicity Manager for The Fix It Group 23, drawing on her background in chemical engineering and environmental management. She spent 15 years working in the power industry, where she held roles as an environmental compliance officer and offshore energy projects developer. After the birth of her daughter, Jo stepped back from corporate life to focus on family, eventually starting her own facepainting business—a creative venture she continues to run around family commitments. She is also an active member of her daughter’s school PTA, which led to her first connection with The Fix It Group 23. Inspired after seeing the café in action one Sunday, she joined the team and now plays a key role in organising events and spreading the word about the group’s work. Jo enjoys the balance of creativity, community, and purpose that volunteering brings.

Tony Mellor

Treasurer

Tony is the Treasurer of The Fix it Group 23. He spent all his working life designing and maintaining electronic equipment for a wide range of industries, pharmaceutical, medical, nuclear and food to name but a few. His first designs used valves, were quite large and ran hot. He remembers when transistors first became available but were quite electrically delicate and expensive so would obviously never catch on. Tony is part of the Telecoms team for Great Central Railways and enjoys refurbishing and repairing the original telephone equipment in the Birstall to Ruddington network as well as looking after the CCTV and other modern stuff a public service system needs. A particular love is repairing equipment which the manufacturer has welded or glued together and assumes will just be thrown away when it expires. The Fix It Group 23 works hard to give these products a new lease of life and keep them out of the “Small Electrical” skip.