Leader of facial disfigurement charity passes away

Tuesday 18 August 2020

Dr James Partridge OBE, a champion for equality and founder of Changing Faces, has passed away.

After sustaining life-changing burns to his face at the age of 18, Dr Partridge engaged with a wide variety of charity work to support people with facial disfigurements.

He passed away on Sunday August 16 at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital.

“James was determined that the insights he’d gained during his prolonged adjustments to facial disfigurement should be put to positive use,” said a spokesperson for the Partridge family. “There is no doubt that his legacy will live on via the countless lives he has so positively impacted, and the well-respected NGOs he has founded.”

In 1992, Dr Partridge founded the charity Changing Faces, which provides psychological and social support for people with facial disfigurements. He stepped down from the charity in 2017 to found Face Equality International, a Guernsey-registered alliance of charities and organisations with similar goals to Changing Faces.

A message from @JRJPartridge 's family:
We are deeply saddened to say that James passed away on Sunday. His death was sudden & peaceful, & we were there by his side.
He will be tremendously missed. https://t.co/X40VtPaQMI https://t.co/FRvUlKy0kg

— JAMES PARTRIDGE (@JRJPartridge) August 17, 2020

He also leaves behind two published books; ‘Changing Faces: The Challenge of Facial Disfigurement,’ written in 1992, and ‘FACE IT,’ described by his family as “a memoir, a manual and a manifesto for change.”

“It is with the gift of this book, and the legacy of what James’ work has left behind, that we can look towards a future where face equality will become a reality.”

Dr Partridge lived in Guernsey for some time, running a dairy farm in St Andrew’s prior to establishing Changing Faces, and stood as a director of the Guernsey Community Foundation.