[Not all speakers have been included, yet their presentations, insights, and findings in the medical world do not go unappreciated. Their names are: Mike Scrase, ‘Imperfect Superhuman’ and author of Zip, Matt Morgan ‘Kissing a Frog,’ Nathan Filer ‘The Imaginary Patient’ and the wonderful film titled, ‘We Need To Talk About Death’]

[A big thanks to The University of Bristol Huamnities for funding my spot at the conference]

Unconventionally, I knew little about the body. Sure, I was a growing hypochondriac, and I may have taken a few sex-ed classes in my teen years, yet this construction of fat, tissue, blood vessels, two eyes, and odd ligaments were disordered, stuck in my teenage years and still learning how to grow. Even further, I prided myself on novels and inaccessible academic papers, so there might have been a few, maybe many, who wondered what movement I could bring to conversation. Yet, I have a feeling there are many out there clueless, uncertain, or mystified about the body, so if I might accurately portray their discussions, might such feelings subside. 

A Sunday Times Bestseller, Benji Waterhouse, weaves a comedic background into his work in psychiatry, reconstructing the reality of the NHS system, as lunch is reserved for the multiple caramel creams and the statistics of their suicide surpass the anesthesiologist, medical team, and emergency doctors that surround them. In his novel, You Don’t Have to be Mad, sympathy envelops the passion for his work, even when the comedic moment arises, as a patient’s fridge was filled with cartons of milk to stave the voices or as he sectioned himself as a patient, delving into his mystifying relationship with his mother in an awkward conversation with a NHS psychiatrist. Overall, his portrayal of the mental health profession was raw, eye opening, and intune with the perplexing relationship of the mind through its underfunding and skeptical responses in society.  

Elise Downing, author of Coasting, shares her running journey as ‘The Crying Crayon’ donned in purple to the first women to run the coast of the United Kingdom. A one-of-a-kind talk, she speaks on a previous reality that was lacking, held down by tumultuous relationships and failed start-ups. Moreover, her training was limited, the kilometers were easily measurable by hand, and she was self-supported with a tent, two pairs of clothes, and a pair of running shoes. Undoubtably inspirational, I found the determination of Elise mesmerizing – her desire to disprove a notable impossibility, yet continually push through her two-week role and the temptation to simply stop. Intruding upon her mental and physical state, Elise recounts her experience of one of the wettest winters in 2015, giving thanks to the homes offered and the 200 friends of family members and friends of friends she encountered during those 10 months — intertwining human connection with personal determination. Her journey and continual work is outlined in her blog under the name Elise Downing.  

Anthony Warner opens strong on the battle between hunger and ecological sustainability with his novel of Ending Hunger: The quest to feed the world without destroying it. A chef himself, he begins his presentation by dismantling common misconceptions surrounding the body and food, through obesity and disease, to the lack of care we have for our planet’s resources. Warner outlines three measures his work comes to clarify: complexity, tribalism (identity and characterization), and appeal to antiquity. While seemingly obvious, one statement that stuck with me was his words, “Hungry societies do not progress” — a necessary directness one needs to hear as we head toward the 2050 postulation of all habitat destruction on Earth. Entirely insightful, eye-opening, and far too sobering, Warner proposes a few steps to radically change our current predicaments: simplicity over complexity, eat less meat and turn to plants, maximize the amount of food one could do with the land, not expanding our currently agricultural land, and enforcing developing countries to consume more meat/dairy. Overall, an essential conversation into how our desires, bodies, consumption, and the environment are all connected, until consequences of our actions will be felt too late.  

Every Brilliant Thing, by Melina Theo, is and was brilliant. A theatrical piece, inviting the crowd to an eventual cast, Theo webs a generational struggle with mental health, from mother to daughter, to create an emotionally moving piece carried by love, lists, and a gratitude for the simplistic ideas which surround us. With international praise, the actor assembles a story of heartbreak, when her younger self grows confused over the depleting mental state of her mother, through numerous suicides attempts and failing parental relationships – it is then, in these pockets of youth, she develops a list of everything worth living for. Unsurprisingly, I did cry, and even more predictably did I learn more about my own self, whose mental health issues shapes and demolishes relationships, filled with pills and immeasurable faith for it to work, and as Melina sums it up best, ‘[how] suicide is contagious.’ Yet, by the end, I believe one of her last statements is one worthy of mention, when she states, “You don’t have to be in abject despair to get help.” 

Rachel Clarke, author of The Story of a Heart and previous current affairs journalist, the now, palliative physician and caretaker, immerses her reader into the two families and the donation of one heart. Intelligent and profound within her work, her background in the medical field, develops the mechanics of the heart, how it operates yet still makes us human, until her piece on Matt and Riva, brings together communities, families, medical teams, and readers alike. Transitioning into radical altruism, Clarke raises the misconceptions and further awareness toward organ donation, urging the reader to speak to a loved one about end-of-life requests. Rather surprisingly, were the historical facts Rachel brought to the conversation, as dogs became test objects for cardiovascular surgeries, a female seamstress aide in the suture techniques for future heart transplants, and like the space race became the race to be the first successful heart transplant in the world. Clarke’s work celebrates humanity at its best, as our everyday able bodies can produce a society furthered by connection and growth by the simple beating of a heart.  

A critique of brutalist architecture within hospitals and author of Do No Harm: True Experience of Being a Neurosurgeon, Henry Marsh delivered a lively atmosphere as the last talk of the night, as he humorously presented numerous images of hospitals around the world, for well, their uninviting characteristics. A neurosurgeon himself, he had to confront the off-putting nature of the medical institutions once his wife became a patient, who left him questioning why she felt humliated within this demeaning, debilitating experience. His efforts to ease the recovery of his patients increased ten-fold, as a critical analysis of the structural, political, financial, prejudicial, and even the geographical issues of the hospital created a dull, uninviting space for care. By the end of his presentation, he narrows his analysis into five rules: the rule of 150, the allowance for nurses to feel responsible within the hospital, institutional pride, space designated for relaxation that promote a better work environment, and single rooms for patients. Overall, Marsh’s ability to step outside the body, portraying better conditions to treat, soothe, and nurture the patient, allows for better understanding of the body in the future.