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.

Dr Dinah Ashley-Cooper qualified as a veterinary surgeon and completed her doctorate in Zurich. In 2007 she became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCVS) specialising in small animal orthopaedic surgery and has worked as a veterinary surgeon for the past 10 years. Dinah manages an equine stud and horse breeding facility specialising in artificial insemination and embryo transfer. She has 3 children and has overseen the restoration of St. Giles House with her husband. The project has won several national awards and is currently used as an events venue with a particular focus on wellbeing.
She has an interest in suicide prevention given the high rates in the veterinary profession. She is a trustee of ‘Drug Science’, an ambassador for Doctors in Distress and a patron of ‘WVS’ (Worldwide Veterinary Service).

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

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’. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

He joined “Preventicum” as Medical Director in February 2006. After 15 years there, he moved to a practice in Harley Street where he has developed “Lumen Advanced Health Assessments”.

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.