Paul Sanderson (chaplain)

Paul David Sanderson MBE (born 8 June 1968) is the Chaplain at The Littlehampton Academy in West Sussex. He has been Chaplain since 2009. He is standing as an independent candidate for the Bognor Regis & Littlehampton constituency in the June 2017 general election.

He is a former trustee for The Body Shop Foundation and current Chair of Trustees for CRED Foundation. On behalf of the national charity Spurgeons Child Care, Sanderson founded The WIRE Project in 1996. Ten years later, he was awarded an MBE for his services to Young People in West Sussex in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

Sanderson was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, but he grew up in Surbiton, Surrey. He was educated at the Hollyfield School in Surbiton. He is the son of Pauline Bexon, who was co-founder of ‘Moves Fitness’ and Peter Sanderson, a former Pastor at Surbiton Community Church.

Sanderson famously made it to the sport back page headlines as the have-a-go hero who helped rescue a local woman and child during the scenes of chaos outside the Boleyn Ground in the build-up to the West Ham United vs Manchester United match in May 2016.

Early roles while at school included being a cleaner at Kingston upon Thames hospital and “Gopher” to Kingston Basketball Club. On leaving school he spent a year as an apprentice asphalt flat roofer, and afterwards he worked in a small local printing shop, Beech Grove Press.

Aged 21, Sanderson was employed as a full-time Youth and Community worker at a local church. His role included setting up counselling services for young people in schools, and overseeing a joint partnership venture for youth advice and support in Kingston town centre called ‘the Magic Roundabout.’ He chaired the management committee for six years, bringing together the health, social and youth services to meet the needs of local young people. Sanderson was an avid escapologist and used his straight jacket escape as a form of communication in his community work. Despite his dyslexia, Sanderson is continually inspired to discover highly creative ways to impart positive messages to his audience.  

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