Dr John Lockley,  President. A retired, Cambridge-trained GP and  medical informatician, John has also been a professional writer since the mid-eighties. He has eight books to his name on a wide variety of subjects, including three novels. Over the past thirty years he’s also written extensively for professional journals on medicopolitical, management and IT matters.

 

Mrs Chris (Chetty) Walker  Vice-Chair and Nurses Representative   has recently published her second novel.

 

 

 

 

 Dr Julian Randall  Chair, Treasurer and Membership secretary, plus Journal IT.

 

 

 

 

Dr Neil Wilson  Editor, ‘The Writer’ and one of our internet editors.
Getting three Personal Views published in the BMJ and various articles in World Medicine in the 1970s and 80s inspired Neil to continue writing, as did joining the SOMW (then GPWA) on its inception in 1986. A memoir of his life as a GP in Yorkshire is slowly forming, but in the meantime he has had many articles published in GP, Pulse, Prescriber and others and won several prizes.
Neil became editor of The Writer in 2012.

                                                       

Dr Suresh Pathak  Conference organiser.

Suresh came to the U.K. in 1966, after working in hospital medicine, then settled as a G.P. in Romford, Essex for three decades. He was a VTS Trainer and did a Masters in General Practice from Anglia University. He joined the original GP Writers’ Association when it was first formed and received several prizes, as well as publishing ” Emotional and Psychological Disorders in General Practice”; and “Something to Celebrate”, a  collection of articles previously published in the BMJ, The Lancet, and the RCGP Journal.

 

  Dr Moira Brimacombe. Facebook editor.

Moira became fascinated by Psychiatry when working in Jamaica. After specialisation she chose the broader career base of General Practice for 30 years. She then retrained and worked in Psychotherapy until recent retirement.

Writing as a hobby was enhanced by a‘ Reflections in Writing for GPs’  group which she now facilitates.  For some years she wrote a regular GP magazine column ‘ A Doctor’s Diary’ and her short stories have appeared regularly in The Writer.

Her first book ’Next Please!’ has just been published.

 

Dr Mary Anderson Committee member. As well as being a doctor and a writer, Mary also used to play violin from time to time with the Hallé Orchestra. (As you do: beat that for a combination of professions!)

 

 

Dr Dorothy Crowther MSc FRCGP. Corresponding committee member and past Chair of SOMW. Retired Hertfordshire GP, Medical Director, and Medical Advisor, Dorothy always wanted to write. Her MSC project “Is there a link between the Consulting Patterns of  Premenopausal women and the Menstrual Cycle?” was published in Family Practice in December 1994; “Windows on a Life.  It  Would be a Difficult Decision But… ” was published in June 1994 in the British Journal of General Practice and reprinted in The Writer. The Mungrisdale Writers have published several pamphlets of poetry to which she has contributed.
Dorothy is very involved in the Quaker movement, especially creating a charity in the deprived area of Rokel in Sierra Leone. This included setting up an orphanage and starting a clinic and a school, about which she has written most effectively.

 

Dr Charmian Goldywn (Committee member and competition organiser) always wanted to be a GP, and worked in in a teaching practice in Twickenham. She joined the GPWA (as it was then) in the early 90’s. She has always enjoyed writing, particularly for the medical magazines. She learned a lot from the conferences she attended, so that her articles started getting published more often.
She started to write poetry while on a sabbatical in Bangladesh in 1989 and likes her poems because they are memories of things she had done, or places she had been: many have been published.
After retirement she found she ‘still had bags of energy and my brain had not seized up’, so she joined ‘Medical Justice’ and became deeply involved in working with asylum seekers, which she continues to this day.

 

Dr Raymond Hume Poetry list-master.
Ray was involved in General Practice and GP academia until 2010. Ever since he was able to read he’s been passionate about good writing — and especially poetry, particularly its links with music, musicality, and the oral tradition. He is also a keen brass-band player.
Some of his poetry has been published. He has also judged several poetry competitions.
Ray was SOMW Vice-Chair (2005-8), and Chair       2008-10.

Dr David Gelipter:  Committee Member