Celebrating excellence in diversity practice

I was delighted to have been asked to speak and give the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Excellence in Diversity Awards in Leeds last week – what a great celebration it was! Congratulations to everyone who was nominated – and the winners should be very proud… and especially to Karin Woodley, Chief Executive of Cambridge House

New year, old stereotypes

Happy New Year everyone – and I’d like to start on an upbeat note … but sadly not. ‘The Undateables’ returns to Channel 4 for a new series on Monday night. For the last four years, this series has brought together people who have medical conditions, disabilities and disfigurements with others with similar conditions (and

World AIDS Day

Charlie Sheen’s recent ‘coming out’ as living with HIV shone a much-needed light on the stigma that still surrounds HIV and AIDS, and set me thinking about parallels with disfigurement. It’s more than thirty years since HIV was discovered, and more than twenty-five years since we lost some high profile names to the condition, such

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

Doing good

A great evening at the Oxford Union last week! So fascinating to be part of an ancient debating tradition that goes back to Gladstone who was President of the Union in 1830. I stood at the despatch box – opposing the motion – on the same boards as many giants of the political world and

Revealing the Lion Faced Man

James is away … Henrietta Spalding, Head of Advocacy at Changing Faces, writes a guest blog After a recent chance meeting with the mezzo opera singer, Alison Wells, last weekend I found myself going along to see a unique opera first at the Tête à Tête Opera Festival at Kings Place in London. It was

From isolated recluse to respected citizen – a tale of two people

I was so delighted to be invited to comment last week on the extraordinary meeting of Richard Norris, a face transplant patient, with his donor’s sister, on the BBC and a number of other news outlets. (You can watch me on the Victoria Derbyshire Show on BBC Two from 31m 35s here.) Here was a

Why powwownow’s Zombie advert offends

Ten days ago I saw an advert on London’s transport network. Called ‘Avoid the Horror’, it featured a group of Zombies standing around a commuter on a packed tube train. Their faces display a variety of scars, bleeding mouths and exposed teeth, distorted by plastic masks. It was a disquieting moment because I came face-to-face with

Revisiting ‘The Elephant Man’

It’s more than two years since I blogged on the greatness of Joseph Merrick and John Hurt, two men who helped, in their different ways, to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by those living with an unusual appearance in today’s looks-obsessed world. I was prompted to look back at that post after Time Out

His is the face of a warrior for the human spirit

To be chosen as the subject of the first People’s Portrait was, as Simon Weston put it, a very humbling experience. But as he showed consistently throughout the beautifully crafted BBC film about the making of the portrait, he is a delightfully humble man. But not in the way you might imagine I mean. Not