Our Ambassadors

She founded The Bigger Picture Collaboration in 2018. It works with organisations including NHS Charities Together, RCGP, Kings University and the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries to improve healthcare professional wellbeing by offering a wider perspective and focus on creativity, the arts and humanities. As a result of her work, she was nominated for a RCGP Inspire Award for Outstanding Contribution. She edited the book ‘These Are The Hands: Poems from the Heart of the NHS’ for NHS Charities with Deborah Alma (The Poetry Pharmacy) and Michael Rosen. Her writing features in the bestseller ‘Many Different Kinds of Love’ by Michael Rosen.

Katie started Restore, a Bigger Picture project with Doctors in Distress, in 2021. It supports healthcare professionals through inspiring events and courses with a focus on creativity including writing, art and theatre. This has included an ongoing collaboration with the Royal Literary Fund.

Now Bertie builds social impact startups- with an education focus – at CanDo, alongside the founder of Tide Business Bank.

Leo Datnow is a newly qualified doctor and leads a focus group alongside other medical students aiming to improve the mental wellbeing standards and practice across medical schools all over the UK.

Leo is passionate about expanding the invaluable services and framework Doctors in Distress pioneers to medical students at all stages of their educational journey. Medical students are our future healthcare providers, but they are suffering, and their mental wellbeing needs to be of paramount importance before transitioning into the UK’s taxing workforce.

His ethos is highlighting and normalising stigma and imposter syndrome in medical school, and reframing what it means to be ‘good enough’ as a medical student.

Leo is thrilled to be a DiD ambassador and is enthusiastic about working in any way he can to build a community of resilient, mindful and resourceful medical students on their path to becoming our next generation of healthcare providers.

Paul started a podcast in 2019 called ‘A Doctor’s View’ as a way of discussing key issues within medicine including the unseen challenges and stresses that doctors face. He regularly talks about the ups and downs of hospital life to help prepare medical students and to remind doctors and other healthcare workers that they are not alone.

Paul is passionate about motorsport and often volunteers as a trackside doctor for racing events including Formula 1. He is also a keen photographer and enjoys clay pigeon shooting.

Emily left her medical career in 2009 because she could not find a healthy and safe way to practice as a doctor and protect her own wellbeing.

After quitting medicine, Emily regularly relocated as her husband’s career moved them around the UK, to Belgium and the USA. She has worked for Cancer Research UK, as a teacher of English as a foreign language and in the fitness industry. She is also a mother to two children.

Emily has been a certified coach since 2020, and works closely with the coaching organisation ‘The Joyful Doctor’. She also cohosts a podcast called The Fully Well Doc Pod – warm and genuine conversations about the universally challenging experience of working, training and living as medics.

Suzy began her career as a teacher and then moved into the corporate world. She started a family and her son was diagnosed with Autism in 2013. Suzy then sought support for the family and professional help for her own mental health. Inspired by her support she trained in Mindfulness based cognitive and physical therapy and decided to put her teaching hat back on and create a mental health programme for young people called Sit with Will. She now advises schools on their wellbeing strategy and runs workshops and therapy sessions. At the beginning of the year Suzy joined Govox, a wellbeing solution based company to help them embed their platform in organisations and education settings. Suzy’s passion is based in finding proactive ways to prevent and support people on their mental health journey. She wants to help others break down stigma and provide access to support early.

Ed studied medicine at the University of Birmingham, graduating in 2017. He then worked for 4 years full-time as a junior doctor in the NHS.

While he enjoyed being a doctor, he was very aware of the stress and anxiety of the job and struggled to switch off after clinical shifts. Ultimately, he decided that he would find a better work-life balance with a split career and transitioned into working within the digital health industry. He maintains his clinical work with weekly shifts in Acute Medicine.

A passionate advocate for the mental health of healthcare staff (and especially fellow junior doctors), Ed is driven to ensure staff can access the support they need to navigate the extremely testing healthcare environment. As he has experienced, staff are too often seen as a name on a rota, purely there to provide a service rather than as a human being.

He joined the Doctors in Distress journey through sponsored running, completing multiple half marathons in scrubs. In 2024, he ran at least 5km every day, in scrubs, to raise money and awareness for Doctors in Distress.

Ed lives with his fellow doctor wife in South Gloucestershire, and when not working or running, he remains a keen hockey player, obsessive sports fan and self-confessed tech nerd.

Melanie has been a registered nurse for 24 years and worked in cardiology and emergency medicine until the end of the pandemic.

She has lost beautiful colleagues in healthcare to suicide. On leaving the NHS in 2021, she was fortunate to become a lecturer in adult nursing at King’s College London.

She is now teaching the next generation of healthcare professionals on their leadership courses, with the aim of giving them the tools to maintain their wellbeing and thrive at work but to also know what to do when the pressure is too hard.

She is passionate about sustainability in its broader meaning and feels that work around suicide prevention and moral injury is so important for the healthcare sector.

Rose is the Associate Medical Director in Southern Health and Social Care Trust, Regional Appraisal Coordinator GP appraisal in Northern Ireland and a GP in Belfast.

She has been aware of the need for support for all healthcare colleagues who experience the lasting impact of the unique stress and stressors encountered in the workplace.

She wants to promote and advocate for improved access to specialist and tailored support with the help of Doctors in Distress which has now launched its services in Northern Ireland.

Jess is a paediatrician and passionate advocate for the wellbeing of health professionals. After working clinically in the NHS for 11 years, Jess experienced burnout and mental illness. She now works in the wellbeing leadership space, educating health professionals through workshops, speaking and writing, and equipping them with the skills to support one another and bring about meaningful change to culture and working lives.

Jess has led a national wellbeing leadership project at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and has successfully used social media to engage people in the important conversation around the inherent humanity and vulnerability of healthcare workers.

During the pandemic, Amrita set up a ‘free to access’ scheme which supported the wellbeing of frontline healthcare workers through coaching and webinars. She is committed to fostering positive discussions on discrimination and actively advocates for the inclusion of doctors with chronic illness or disability within the medical profession.

Amrita has published research in the peer-reviewed British Journal of Health Psychology which investigates the lived experience of posttraumatic growth in doctors with invisible disability. As a TEDx Speaker on this very subject, she used this platform to challenge the frameworks and biases that society imposes inviting her audience to consider the potential for growth through dealing with adversity.

As a strong believer in promoting healthcare workers’ wellbeing, Amrita is delighted to be an Ambassador for Doctors in Distress and support their much needed and highly commended work.

Throughout her time Marie has witnessed the toll that burnout and mental health challenges can take on those who devote their lives to caring for others. She firmly believes Marie has been an integral part of the Doctor in Distress’ efforts to provide resources, guidance, and a safe space for healthcare workers. Marie is honoured to be an Ambassador and remains steadfast in her commitment to supporting Doctors in Distress foster a culture of well-being, and ensure that no one feels alone. Her belief is that by uplifting those who provide care, we create a ripple effect that positively impacts patient outcomes and the entire healthcare system.

Deep has been working with Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust as an NHS addiction psychiatrist for over 18 years. He has led a community drug and alcohol service as well as various medical management roles and is the named doctor for safeguarding within the Trust.

In September 2017 Deep narrowly survived a deterioration in mental health due to his depression and alcohol dependence.

Now in recovery from both, Deep is keen to promote the positives of life after surviving and recovering, including rebuilding a successful career without being held back by the stigma of mental health and addiction.

Deep, who is an executive committee member of the Faculty of Addictions for the Royal College of Psychiatrists, is also passionate about the mental health impact of racism in all its forms experienced by those in caring professions.

Deep lives in the East Midlands with his wife and two sons.