Speakers and talks

Alexandra is deafblind, and has had to battle a huge number of prejudices on her journey to becoming a doctor. Rather than letting it dim her dreams, Alex went in search of other blind and deaf doctors who taught her that not only was what she was striving to achieve possible, but that she could thrive.

Dr Andy Knox, a General Practitioner based in North West England, looks at our ways of working in healthcare and the impact of massive health inequalities across the UK. He focuses on the culture that’s needed to develop together in order to create real wellness within our communities, including the four cultural foundations of Hope, Inclusivity, Joy and Kindness.

The shocking tragedy of the fire at Grenfell Tower in North Kensington that claimed the lives of 72 men, women and children on the night of 14 June 2017, forever changed a community in the heart of West London. Fatima Elguenuni’s own daughter-in-law and grandchildren were some of the last survivors to make it out of the burning tower. In her strikingly powerful talk, Fatima speaks of her personal involvement in the aftermath.

In the summer of 2016 broadcaster and journalist Charlie Webster was in a coma and on life support. Thankfully she survived – a ‘miracle’ according to her doctors. But Charlie’s talk doesn’t focus on what happened, or even how it happened. Instead she charts the journey of followed. As she navigated the rough seas of PTSD – post traumatic stress disorder – and struggled to come to terms with the aftermath of her experience.

If you were invisible for a day, what would you do? When the trans community were asked the same questions, thousands of people gave the same answer: go swimming. This response offers a glimpse of how restricted the world can be when you don’t feel safe. Jacob Bayliss opens our eyes to the polar experiences he has faced as a trans man trying to access good healthcare.

In the worst moment of your life, what would you need? In 2017, Jen Gilroy-Cheetham’s life changed forever. Just six months after having her second child, she was diagnosed with a rare neuroendocrine tumour and was advised that she would need to undergo open surgery to have half of her stomach removed.

Imagine that your closest relative is in cardiac arrest. They need urgent medical help. You call 999 and the ambulance crew arrive at your door – standing there with the skills, drugs, defibrillator that’s needed. Ready to administer life-saving CPR. But one of them is a former drug addict with 33 criminal convictions. They’ve lied, stolen and spent time in prison. Would you let them treat your mother? Your father? Your child? Kate Morrissey shares her most vulnerable moments in this brutally honest talk; confronting the divisive issue of rehabilitation and why we need to do better.

Lucy Watts was told in her mid-teens that she was going to die early. Her original prognosis was that she wouldn’t see her 18th birthday. Yet she did. Then came her next prognosis: that she wouldn’t live to her early twenties. In October 2019, a few days after her 26th birthday, Lucy delivered her TEDxNHS talk.

Prerana Issar is the first NHS People Officer. Prior to this she led the development of the United Nation’s first strategic human capital approach. Throughout her career she has seen examples of people doing incredible things because they gave voice, space and shape to their sense of purpose. So how do we take the power of purpose and turn it into our super power?

If you took 15 seconds to do something now, which would save someone else 30 minutes later, you would release time. And if that person then did something to save someone else time, and so on, that starts to create a beneficial cycle. Imagine how, by doing this, we could reduce frustration and increase joy in work – for a team. A department. A workforce. Enter Rachel Pilling and Dan Wadsworth – who have taken this challenge to the NHS through their social movement 15s30m.

A first-generation Indian immigrant and economic migrant to the UK after being recruited by the NHS in 2002, Raj Adgopul redefines appreciation in his funny and endearing talk which contrasts life in the hustle and bustle of Mumbai compared to rural Dorset.

Those who choose to train in a healthcare profession have a higher baseline empathy than the general population. Significantly so. So why does this empathy take a nosedive so early on in their careers? And why does it never recover? Sammy Batt-Rawden explores this dilemma through the frame of moral injury – a military term likened to ‘death by a thousand cuts’.

Sarah Hillman, a clinician and academic researcher, takes us on a journey into medical feminism: from the courageous Edinburgh seven – the 18th century medical students who were never allowed to graduate; to the medical gender pay gap; to the outdated societal perceptions that are resulting in missed diagnoses and suboptimal care for women.

Sarah Hesz and Katie Massie-Taylor met in a playground as tired new mums. In their garbled, sleep-deprived mumble of a conversation, they forged a connection that would change everything.

Healthcare Support Worker, Yusuf Yousuf shares his experiences as a hospital porter to demonstrate how building relationships and strengthening connections across his NHS organisation – clinical and non-clinical – has helped to bring the highest level of knowledge, skills and care to patients, and supported staff collaboration.