I have worked in hospital medicine and public health in the UK and in Africa for over 30 years, observing a growing chasm in health and wealth between the rich and the poor, in the UK and internationally, an inequity that is bad for everyone. I spend my time working with inspiring colleagues and communities fighting the good fight

I established the Bradford Institute for Health Research to support ‘research to change a city’. We didn’t have any money so focused on research that was people-powered rather than reliant on expensive laboratories. In 2007 I set up the Born in Bradford (BiB) cohort study which is following the lives of over 50,000 mums, dads and children. With incredible support from staff at BRI and the altruism from the families of Bradford this small acorn of a study has grown into one of the largest and most exciting health research studies in the world. Evidence from BiB studies has informed local, national international policies and led to improvements in clinical practice and public health and has led to the world’s first experimental birth cohort study - Born in Bradford’s Better Start - and ActEarly which is a whole systems City Collaboratory to improve the health and life chances of children from deprived communities in London and Yorkshire.