To my astonishment, this year - 2025 - I have worked in the prevention of non-communicable disease (NCDs) for a full 20 years. I have been a freelance consultant since 2017, and nothing makes me happier than diving into a good writing project or using my extensive experience in this area to provide strategy advice.

 

I am passionate about making it easier to be healthy - which, as we all know, is no simple task: encouraging physical activity, better diet, quitting smoking, and drinking (much) less. I have particular interests in tackling the complex challenges of obesity, NCDs in humanitarian settings, the impact of the environment (the links between unhealthy lifestyles and climate change), cities and health, and human rights (in which I previously worked as a consultant at Maplecroft and for the International Business Leaders Forum, and in which I have a Masters from the LSE). 

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I chair the UK Working Group on NCDs, a role that in 2025 includes engaging with the UK government (FCDO and DHSC) on the UN High-level Meeting on NCDs, to be held in September. I organise and chair monthly UKWG meetings, manage social media, co-organise events and webinars with colleagues, and write occasional briefing papers. The UKWG is a member of the NCD Alliance, and in that capacity I took part in a civil society consultation prior to the NCDA Global Forum in 2025.

 

In my spare time, I love cricket and I am a proud trustee of Sussex Cricket Foundation, where I advise on health-related programmes as well as fulfilling the governance roles required of the Board of a charity. In 2023, I spent two weeks volunteering with Cricket Without Boundaries, bringing cricket into schools in Rwanda.

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Skills

 

My strengths include the ability rapidly to produce clear, easily digestible summaries of complex ideas and arguments - as well as a unique ability to rapporteur meetings, providing either a detailed description immediately, or a summary of the event. I advise on strategy in NCDs and use my extensive network (both in person and on LinkedIn and on X) to make fruitful connections between organisations for which I work.

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• Research/writing

• Making connections across traditional 'silos' in health (not least including Covid-19)  – striving for a ‘whole-of-government, whole-of-society’ approach to NCD prevention, as advocated by the UN and WHO

• Acting as institutional memory - I am increasingly finding, after several years as a freelance, that my recollection of past working within organisations is extremely valuable, as staff have moved on

• Network building and partnership working 

• Communications, including social media – I am personally active on X (although less so as the site declines) and curate the website and X account of the UK Working Group on NCDs

• Copy-editing – I began my career as a copy-editor for academic publishers including Cambridge University Press

• Presenting at events (national and international)

• Strategy advice

• Project managing

• Interviewing to inform reports (e.g. for the Danish Red Cross, Food Foundation, Global Action Plan and a project on social prescribing in London)

• Events management – even when, as happened in 2010, a volcano strands most of the rest of the organising team half way around the world…

 

Recent portfolio of work

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Since becoming freelance, I have worked with:

• UK: C3 Collaborating for Health, Food Foundation, Obesity Health Alliance,  Sussex Cricket Foundation (trustee), World Cancer Research Fund International, World Obesity

• Europe: Access to Nutrition Initiative, Danish Red Cross, International Federation of the Red Cross, NCD Alliance, WHO/Europe 

• Elsewhere: Framework Convention Alliance (Canada), VicHealth (Australia), World Health Organization (Geneva)

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There is a detailed list of my writing work here and my consulting portfolio in 2024/5 includes:

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• Regular meetings with UK government ahead of the UN High-level Meeting on NCDs (UNHLM)

• Advising the IFRC/Danish Red Cross on advocacy ahead of the UNHLM, including assisting in a 'bootcamp' held at the IFRC in May 2025

• Worked with the NCD Alliance as lead rapporteur ahead of and during the NCDA Global Forum in Rwanda in February 2025, including orchestrating a team of rapporteurs, acting as lead rapporteur, and writing daily official blogs

• Writing three reports for WHO (Geneva): a guide for journalists to NCDs, the update of the global investment case on NCDs, and a brochure on the FCTC 2030 project.

 

Previous projects (in addition to my writing) include:​

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• Lead rapporteur (heading a team of session rapporteurs) at the Global NCD Alliance Forum (Sharjah December 2017 and February 2020; Rwanda 2025), including organising a team of young-professional volunteers to rapporteur parallel sessions

• Six-month consultancy with WCRF International (2018-19), drawing up a methods document for a scan of physical activity and nutrition policies in Europ

• Policy and strategy work with World Obesity (from 2019)

• Presenting on workplace health in low- and middle-income countries at the International Conference on Urban Health (Portugal) and the Global NCD Alliance Forum (2017)

• Consultancy on engagement and proofreading for the Healthy New Towns (NHS England) final report, as part of a Town and Country Planning Association consortium

• Advising on obesity and physical activity in Newham, east London

• Co-chairing event on workplace health, at CREATE Design architects

• Presenting to SMEs on the health impacts of air pollution in London

• Assessing the website of a new online network of professionals in design and the environment, including writing FAQs ​​​​​​