#WhereIsDisfigurement? Two classic examples

I fear we at Changing Faces* are going to have say this loudly and regularly: Barely a month passes without a government department, executive agency, public body, company or charity publishing a report or new policy on equality, human rights and/or disability and yet the issue of disfigurement is often ignored, excluded or otherwise forgotten.

The birth of modern plastic surgery and the face equality campaign

The centenary of the cataclysmic Great War is happening all around us but is liable to be drowned out by last week’s European events. Let me call for a moment of reflection. We say on Armistice Day every November ‘we will remember them’ and we should this week. Lest we forget. On Friday 1st July,

Changing Faces sticks to its prinicples

Changing Faces has recently submitted its response to the review of cleft lip and palate surgical care in Scotland. It has been criticised in a few blogs and Facebook posts by some parents for supporting the expert Review Group’s recommendation that there should be a single surgical team based at the new Royal Children’s Hospital

Fashion, faces and the future

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Professor Danka Tamburic, Professor in Cosmetic Science at the London College of Fashion because she is hosting a fascinating Symposium in April, Skin: The ultimate interface, to which I will be contributing with Henrietta Spalding. Our title is ‘Changing Faces: from stigma to face equality’. The meeting

Face transplantation 10 years on…

Hats off to Isabelle Dinoire! Ten years ago today, she signed the consent form to receive the world’s first face transplant – and I wished her well three days later when she appeared in front of a massive press conference – and I wish her well again today. She deserves the gratitude of people with

Faces of the First World War

This weekend, people up and down the country will be marking Remembrance Sunday and remembering the hundreds of thousands of people who died in conflict. For me, it’s also an opportunity to reflect on the enormous advances in plastic and reconstructive surgery that resulted from the work of pioneering surgeons a hundred years ago –