Meet our speaker
Rachel Clarke
Twitter: @doctor_oxford Instagram: doctoroxford
Before going to medical school, Dr Rachel Clarke was a television journalist and documentary maker. She now specialises in palliative medicine, caring deeply about helping patients live the end of their lives as fully and richly as possible – and in the power of human stories to build empathy and inspire change.
Rachel is the author of three Sunday Times bestselling books. Breathtaking, just published, reveals what life was really like inside the NHS during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. Dear Life, shortlisted for the 2020 Costa Biography Award and long-listed for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize, is based on her work in a hospice. It explores love, loss, grief, dying and what really matters at the end of life. Your Life in My Hands documents life as a junior doctor on the NHS frontline.
Meet our panelists
Monawar Hussain
Monawar read Theology at the University of Oxford (1998), trained as an Imam at the Muslim College, London and holds an MA in Abrahamic Religions from the University of London (2016). He is Muslim Tutor and Imam at Eton College, Muslim Chaplain at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is the founder of The Oxford Foundation.
Monawar’s interests can be categorised as young people, communities and faith leadership.
At Eton College, he developed the first educational programme in the West tackling the radicalisation of young Muslims (14-18 yrs. old) entitled, Oxford Muslim Pupils’ Empowerment Programme (OMPEP). Key aspects of this were integrated into the national REsilience programme. He also served on the national board of Mosaic Networks, the Three Faiths Forum and the NSPCC national advisory board on safeguarding and Muslim children.
In Oxfordshire, he is founding member of the Oxford Council of Faiths; initiated the One World Festival, held annually at the Ashmolean Museum; successfully led the campaign to build the Central Oxford Mosque; board member of The Oxford Trust; Consultant to the Prison Phoenix Trust; Visitor, History of Science Museum; advisory board member, Dalai Lama Centre for Compassion; Vice President, Oxford Civic Society.
Beyond Oxfordshire, Monawar leads the national United for Peace: Communities united against Extremism initiative; is founding member of the Armed Forces Muslim Forum; Executive Committee member, World Congress of Faiths. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion, University of Birmingham and Fellow, Royal Society of Arts.
Julia Samuel
Julia Samuel is a psychotherapist who has spent the last thirty years working with bereaved families. She has worked both in private practice and in the NHS at St Mary’s Hospital Paddington where she pioneered the role of maternity and paediatric psychotherapist. In 1994 she worked to launch and establish Child Bereavement UK as its Founder Patron, where she played a central role until September 2019. Julia was awarded an MBE in the 2015 New Year’s Honours list for services to bereaved children. She is the author of two books: Grief Works and This Too Shall Pass.
Chris Pointon
Chris Pointon is the widower of the inspiring Dr Kate Granger MBE and Co-founder of the #hellomynameis campaign of which he remains the Global Campaign Ambassador
‘Play the cards in life you’ve been dealt’ were words that Kate and I lived by and we certainly lived life to the full every day, even before her terminal cancer diagnosis.
“Our lives were turned upside down in 2011 when Kate was diagnosed with terminal cancer whilst we were holidaying in California.
From that point we crammed a huge amount into Kate’s time on this planet. Along the way we raised over £500,000 for good causes, travelled the world, met many celebrities and royalty and started a global campaign that improves patient care through the basic message of introductions entitled #hellomynameis. Kate’s legacy is huge and her name will live on forever through her legacy and various awards named in her honour.”
Meet our host
Professor Sir Simon Wessely
Regius Professor of Psychiatry
Professor of Psychological Medicine at King’s College London, Past President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal Society of Medicine, a consultant psychiatrist at King’s College Hospital and at the Maudsley Hospital, where he practices liaison psychiatry.
Professor Wessely’s principal research interests are epidemiology, how people and populations react to adversity, military health and the nature and treatment of medically unexplained symptoms and syndromes,
He has published more than 850 professional publications and has received over £40million in research funding.
As well as being Head of the Academic Department of Psychological Medicine at King’s College London (to 2014), he has founded or co-founded research units focusing on chronic fatigue syndrome, gulf war illnesses, clinical trial methods and military health.
As a result of his research work he has been appointed as a Foundation Senior Investigator for England’s National Institute for Health Research, he serves on numerous government committees for the Department of Health, Cabinet Office and Ministry of Defence He recently led the Independent Review of the Mental Health act.
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