Making cosmetic surgery safe – it could happen…

Yesterday was eye-opening, shocking (again) but ultimately – possibly – reassuring. Whatever we think about the messages and pressures that bombard us about the value of ‘looking good’, we have to respect the many people who seek cosmetic surgery believing that it will be a tonic and give them a boost to their self-esteem and

Roger Ebert: a man with a powerful thumb and an outstanding face

A film critic extraordinaire who left his thumb, up or down, on the minds of millions of Americans about films of all kinds, he will also have done much to familiarise them with what a face transformed by surgery after cancer looks like. Just as important, perhaps more so, he demonstrated in his own unique

Unearthing the face of a villain?

Along with millions, I was mesmerised last night by Channel 4’s brilliant documentary about the archaeological dig in that Leicester car park. As the bits of the skeleton emerged, with the twisted spinal column and dainty limbs, I waited with bated breath for the face. Eventually it was revealed, to an immediate sigh of relief

Technology, beautiful technology… Or is it?

I am constantly amazed by man’s inventiveness! Did you see the news that Professor Stephen Hawking is being enabled to ‘write’ faster, at five words per minute, using facial recognition technology? (The Times, 22.1.13)? And the ‘magic arms’ helping a child with a severe disability towards a full, independent life. I was recently at an

The journey from King’s Cross Station to the National Portrait Gallery

It’s only a short bike ride across London – I do it regularly – going down Gower Street past University College Hospital with the Rayne Institute and Changing Faces on the right in University Street, then on past Bedford Square and down through Seven Dials and St Martin’s Lane. But it’s also a highly symbolic

More and more people with unusual faces in the public eye, please!

Wasn’t it great to see and hear John Sudworth, the BBC’s Shanghai Correspondent, appearing with a unusual-looking face on the TV a few weeks ago? John has contracted Bell’s Palsy so his face has a slightly droopy look which he is understandably rather self-conscious about but which, he decided and his employer agreed, should not

Why the BBC Trust’s ruling on Top Gear matters

It has taken seven long months, much persistence and pages of tough legalistic arguing by Changing Faces to achieve the BBC Trust’s milestone judgment. Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond’s scripted remarks about a car they called ‘the Elephant Car’ did indeed infringe the BBC’s code on harm and portrayal as laid down in their Editorial

One small step…

I can certainly remember exactly where I was when Neil Armstrong took that first step on to the Moon’s surface in late July 1969. Somewhat easier but only slightly less significant in my life, I can also recall where I was in late July 2012 when I heard that the first Changing Faces Practitioner had

If this was just the warm up…

29 gold medals, 17 silver and 19 bronze!  What an incredible tally!  And what a testament to the determination and resilience of everyone who aspires to Olympic glory!  The sort of resilience and determination needed by many people living a disfigurement when they face the slings and arrows of others’ unkind reactions to their appearance,

Humility in the Olympian foothills…

Last Saturday morning, I travelled across London with hundreds of others to the Olympic Park but, unlike them, I stepped off the main pilgrim’s trail to enter into a small BBC studio. There I met Sian Williams and the Rev Richard Coles and their other studio guest, Gerald Seymour, and we then broadcast Saturday Live