Our vision is to promote and protect the mental health of all healthcare workers and prevent suicide.

Baroness Gerada is a GP and a crossbench peer in the House of Lords. She is the past President of the Royal College of General Practitioners, only the second woman to hold the position in 50 years.

She established the Practitioner Health Programme to support doctors and dentists with mental health and associated issues.

When Amandip Sidhu founded Doctors in Distress, she supported and guided the charity. She chaired the Board of Trustees from 2019 to June 2023, and on 1 July 2023 became Patron.

She lives in London.

Dr Adam Kay is an award-winning writer and former non-award-winning doctor. His debut book, This is Going to Hurt, based on his years on the wards was a literary sensation. A Sunday Times number one bestseller for over a year, it sold over 3 million copies making it the UK’s bestselling non-fiction book of the 21st century.Adam is the creator, writer and executive producer of the BBC adaptation of This is Going to Hurt which explored the pressures faced by healthcare staff within the NHS, and for which he won a BAFTA award for Best Drama Writer.Adam is a passionate advocate for the mental wellbeing of doctors and a proud patron of Doctors in Distress. He lives in Oxfordshire, England with his husband, children, Airedale Terrier and BAFTA.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul is a GP partner who has worked in his practice in North London for over three decades.
He has also dedicated his professional life representing and supporting doctors having been elected onto the BMA GPs committee in 1996 and later becoming its chair. He was the first ethnic minority chair of the BMA Council from 2017 to 2022, during which time he led the medical profession through the challenges of the Covid pandemic in dialogue with the government and in the media.He is passionate about the need to support doctors well-being, and was previous chair of the BMA’s well-being support network. He has long advocated for racial equality in medicine; he chairs the BMA’s Forum for Racial and Ethnic Equality and is a board member of the NHS Race and Health Observatory.He has been awarded the CBE for services to primary care, a Fellowship of the Royal College of General Practitioners and an Honorary Fellowship of the Faculty of Public Health.His main antidote to hard work is his love of music, particularly enjoying live jazz.

Jonathan is a practising GP and works in the Caldicott Guardian team at NHSE. He has worked as a locum, salaried GP and GP Partner, and has held positions in BMA and RCGP. He led the BMA Committee for Medical Managers' webinar series on bullying and burnout in 2021-2He is a fellow of the British Computer Society, and the Institute of Directors. He is a Chartered Director, a CDir assessor (providing quality assurance at the final Peer Review stage of CDir). He has a particular interest in the Clinical Safety and ethical build of AI, and corporate governance. Having been a GP appraiser, together with his own appraisal experiences, he is passionate about ensuring that appraisal is supportive and beneficial for the doctor.

Amandip founded Doctors in Distress in 2019 after his brother Jagdip, a consultant cardiologist, died by suicide. The tragedy exposed how the medical profession deals with mental health and why that needs to change. What began as a personal conviction has grown into a nationally recognised charity working to prevent burnout and suicide among healthcare professionals, supported by leaders across the NHS, government and the medical community.

Amandip is a senior leader with a proven track record in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, specialising in quality and governance, change and project management, and not-for-profit leadership. He has worked across clinical, commercial and operational settings, building new services from scratch and scaling quality management systems from local to global.

An award-winning charity founder, non-executive director and public speaker, Amandip won The Sun’s Who Cares Wins Award in 2023.

Alex is a commercially minded leader in pharmaceutical services with more than a decade of senior experience across strategy, operations and general management. Most recently he was Chief Executive Officer of Medical Research Network.

Before that, Alex spent over eleven years at World Courier, where he progressed from Head of Pricing to Director of Strategy, Vice President of Strategy and Services, Senior Vice President of Global Strategy and Operations, and finally General Manager.

Alex holds a PhD in Experimental Solid State Physics from Imperial College London. He brings strong commercial, financial and governance experience to the board as Treasurer, and is based in London.

Léon is a lawyer with over 20 years’ experience as a senior business executive, corporate counsel, and leader of enterprise level governance, risk and compliance management. Previously General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of a global healthcare business, Léon is now the CEO and co-founder of Impact Privacy, a healthcare regulatory services business supporting the life science and digital health industry globally. Léon is also a Strategic Advisory Board member of Clisteprobe, a medical device company focussing on real-time disease diagnosis, and an active member of the University of Miami’s LawWithoutWalls Programme, where he contributes as an innovation coach and mentor.

Dr Emily Fulleylove is a former doctor and an ICF-accredited (ACC) life and career transitions coach for medics. She studied medicine at the University of Southampton, later worked as a freelance medical writer producing accessible summaries of clinical trial reviews, and trained as a coach with the Wellcoaches School of Coaching.

Since 2020 Emily has run FullyBe Coaching, helping doctors and other caring professionals who have plenty of advice but still feel stuck to make intentional changes in their lives and careers. She previously coached with The Joyful Doctor and was part of The Fully Well Doc Pod, a podcast about doctors’ wellbeing.

Emily leads the Doctors in Distress Ambassador Programme.

Subodh is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Deputy Director of Undergraduate Medical Education, Derbyshire Healthcare Foundation Trust. He is the Dean of Royal College of Psychiatrists.

He is passionate about co-production and patient involvement in Quality Improvement as well as in teaching where he has been the architect for the award-winning programme of volunteer-patient teachers in Derby and developed mentoring programmes for International Medical Graduates (IMGs).

Subodh is a keen runner and ran a marathon a month for 6 months in 2024, raising around £11,000 for Doctors in Distress.

Mary Jane attended the London School of Economics and worked for H.M. Treasury on taxation and healthcare. She moved to the Department of Health on independent reviews of investment in healthcare and health workforces. She completed a Masters in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine before private sector roles leading to Chartered Status with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Mary Jane has developed a specialism in the third sector, leading charities since 2019 and being a keen member of the National Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations. She has a personal interest in the value of nature for mental health, Chairing the Safer Parks Committee for The Royal Parks and the Coronation Garden project for nature in schools. Mary Jane lives in North London with her husband and children.

Susannah has been working for Doctors in Distress since 2021. She has a passion for removing the stigma around speaking about mental health and providing all healthcare staff with support for their mental health when they need it.Before joining Doctors in Distress, Susannah worked for a high profile Member of Parliament. She has a masters in Governance and Political Development and speaks 3 languages.

Dr Sam Anthony qualified from St. Mary’s Hospital Paddington in 1999. As a junior doctor she volunteered in a small hospital in Cape Town, before embarking on surgical training in London. After completing her surgery exams in 2003 she re-trained as a GP in St Albans, seeking a life not attached to a bleep. Whilst working as a salaried GP she was suddenly diagnosed with cancer in 2005 and forced to embark on her own journey of survival. Blessed to have come through it, she returned to work in 2007, re-invented as a surgeon in Dermatology at West Herts NHS Trust, where she continues to this day, specialising in skin lesion & skin cancer diagnosis and treatment. She knows first hand the overwhelm, stress, and burnout, that studying, training, and working in medicine brings, and the twists and turns of life, and in 2017 she took a 9 month career break in Montreal Canada, accompanying her husband’s job. Finally having the space and time to reflect on life and work, she created the concept of Permitted To Pause, aimed at helping medics, and everyone, to recognise the importance of self-permission for self-care, well-being, finding the joy and ways to thrive, not just survive. When she approached DiD in its infancy during the pandemic, and understanding their mission, it was a no-brainer to support all that they are about. She has permanently given up taking exams, and these days enjoys being outdoors, yoga, piano, swimming, friends, family, her husband, and their home in the New Forest!

Katie is a GP specialising in healthcare professional wellbeing. She is a Certified Coach, Member of the Association for Coaching and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy trainer. With the support of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, she developed a unique course for healthcare staff and has run events, courses and workshops on wellbeing, compassion, mindfulness and creativity for organisations including the NHS Practitioner Health Programme; Royal College of GPs; NHS Coaching and Mentoring Scheme and Health Education England.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.

Dr Ashley qualified as a doctor in 2008 with ambitious plans to become a high flying anaesthetist. She got onto one of the most competitive training programmes in the country before realising that it wasn’t making her fulfilled, so she then switched training programmes to become a GP. However, once having qualified as a GP she very quickly developed anxiety and burned out in her first year of being qualified.

Her mission is to improve working conditions and mental wellbeing of medical professionals, as well as helping and supporting those that are struggling with stress, burnout, work fatigue and career indecision. She is a NHS Clinical Entrepreneur and is now the co-founder and COO of BobbyChat, an app that uses AI to deliver coaching via WhatsApp to help users successfully navigate their workplace challenges and stressors.

Dr Ashley lives in North Somerset with her stunt man husband. Together, the couple have 2 children and a never-ending house renovation project.

Bertie previously worked at a consultancy, the European Commission and Virgin Atlantic before joining Doctors in Distress in 2020 as strategy and partnerships lead. For the next year, Bertie helped to develop the group system and partnerships we have in operation today.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.

Dr Olivia Donnelly is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and leads the Staff Wellbeing Psychology Team at North Bristol NHS Trust, which includes a dedicated NHS wellbeing service for doctors. She has a particular interest in practical and values-based approaches that promote psychological safety and compassion within teams and across healthcare organisations, based on the foundation that ‘resilience is between us, not just within us’. 

Dr Paul Efthymiou qualified in 2010 and is currently working as an anaesthetist. For many years he has been an advocate for raising awareness about burnout in medicine and the impact it has on the lives of healthcare workers and their families.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.

Shan qualified as a doctor from Imperial College, London in 1999 and has been practising as a GP since 2007.

He currently sits on the BMA Council and the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee where he serves as policy lead for workforce and organisational development.

Having experienced stress-related health issues, he is a passionate supporter of frontline health care workers and he firmly believes that staff well-being should be placed at the heart of health care delivery.

He presently resides in his hometown of Nottingham with his wife and son.

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.

Henriette has a passion for changing the stigma around mental ill-health and preventing suicides. She works for This Can Happen, which is a workplace mental health company supporting organisations with their employee mental health. She is a trained Samaritan listener, Mental Health First Aider and author of the Mindset Triangle Book which is all about how to balance your life when living with mental ill-health. She is studying BSc Psychology part time through the Open University. The NHS has helped Henriette many times through IVF treatment, to childbirth to supporting her after the death of her own child. As someone who cares for her own children living with dyslexia and autism, she strongly believes in caring for the carer. She also supports her partner who lives with bipolar. By showing compassion, empathy and care for each other Henriette believes we can prevent mental illness reaching crisis points is key and prevent suicides.

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.

A retired Consultant Orthodontist in the Western Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland (NI), Roz is presently Chair of Probing Stress in Dentistry N.I., a co-chair of DISCREET N.I. and is a member of MINDSET UK. She is Honorary Patron of the British Orthodontic Society for 2025.

Roz is a past co-chair of Mental Wellness in Dentistry Working Group (UK) and was part of the collaboration which produced the Support for Dental Teams resource, www.supportfordentalteams.org . She was a member of the working group which published the recent Society of Occupational Medicine Suicide Postvention Guidelines and she is a past member of the FDI Task Group developing a toolkit and podcasts to support dentists and their teams.

Roz is a Past President of the British Dental Association (BDA) and the Northern Ireland Branch, past Chair of NI Council, BDA, and until recently, worked with the Association in matters relating to wellness and mental health. She is a Life member of the European Orthodontic Society and the NI Orthodontic Study Group.

During her career, Roz was involved in Trust governance, quality improvement, audit and appraisal. She was Clinical Lead for Specialist Surgery for seven years. Roz was secretary to the Audit Committee of the BOS and chaired the Northern Ireland Hospital Training Committee NIMDTA for nine years.

In her spare time, Roz enjoys choral singing and gardening.

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.

Dr Amrita Sen Mukherjee works as a Positive Psychology Practitioner and Coach, Portfolio GP, and Disability Advocate.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.

Nick is a NHS Psychiatrist and Wellness Expert, who brings personal experience from living with bipolar disorder.

As a Doctor, he cares deeply about his clinical work but is acutely aware of the greater social impact of research, enterprise and innovation. He is also a mental health campaigner who is passionate about reducing the stigma attached to mental illness, especially within the healthcare industry.

Marie is a seasoned healthcare professional with 20-year career within the NHS, serving both as a commissioner and provider in various challenging and uncertain environments. Her extensive experience in navigating complex healthcare landscapes has given her a deep understanding of the unique pressures faced by healthcare workers on the frontlines. 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.

Carole Stone CBE is former producer of BBC Radio 4’s flagship discussion programme Any Questions?

Former Managing Director of the online opinion polling company YouGovStone Limited and founder of The Carole Stone Foundation to support her belief that connecting people, exchange ideas and building friendships around the world is essential to help make a fairer society.