Noni Farrelly

First off, Noni’s proper name is Fiona, but no one calls her that! Noni was born in Uganda and lived there until she was seven when she came home to the UK with her parents. Noni’s father then joined the diplomatic service so she did lots of travelling and lived in many different countries whilst growing up. Once Noni left school she trained as a Nurse at the Royal Free Hospital in London. After her training she went on to qualify as an HIV specialist and as a family planning nurse. She worked for a number of years as a practise nurse and then as a school nurse.

In 1998 Noni went to work for South West London Vineyard as their children’s leader for four years. Then in 2003 she and Peter planted Kingston Vineyard at the same time as starting the first Growbaby. Initially Noni worked bi-vocationally as a College nurse and for the Church but by 2009 she had moved to serve the Church and Growbaby full time. As Growbaby flourished and grew and more Growbabys were launched her role changed and she worked closely alongside Tanya van Dalen, who now leads Growbaby Kingston, as she took a role supporting new Growbabys and latterly negotiating Growbaby through the Covid pandemic.

Peter and Noni have been married for 36 years and have three grown up children. They currently live on a narrowboat called Barbarella, who is named after the nightclub they had their first date in, they are travelling the waterways of the UK.