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HealthWatch Committee:

President: Nick Ross is one of the UK's best known broadcasters. His credits include Crimewatch and many of the most famous news-related programmes, documentaries and debates, and coverage of live including parliament. In 1997 he was named Broadcaster of the Year for his Radio 4 programme Call Nick Ross (1986-1997) and his programmes have won or been nominated for awards almost every year since then.

He was Chairman of the Aventis Science Book Prize jury in 2006 and has been a member of the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS), the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, the government's Clothier Committee (on the ethics of gene therapy), the Gene Therapy Advisory Committee, and the NHS Taskforce and Health of the Nation Working Group. He is an ambassador for the WWF and chairman of the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science at UCL.

Chairman: Dr James May graduated from Sheffield Medical School in 1997, and is now a GP principal in Kennington.

He has an MA in Bioethics from St Mary's College in Twickenham, writing a dissertation on the mind-body problem in medicine, and he has a long-term interest in the history and philosophy of science.

Vice Chairman: Mr. Keith Isaacson is a Senior Consultant Orthodontist currently consulting at the North Hampshire Hospital, Basingstoke. He is also the Visiting Orthodontic Consultant to the States of Jersey. Formerly Chairman of Examiners for Orthodontics for the Royal College of Surgeons of England and formerly Chairman of the Medical Writers Group of the Society of Authors. Life Member of the British Orthodontic Society. He has lectured extensively in Europe and the Far East and co-authored four text books which has been translated into 15 different languages. He is Co-Editor of the British Orthodontic Society Guidelines on the use of radiographs.

Anne Raikes

Treasurer: Anne Raikes. Anne is an Oxford maths graduate who qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

She has since acquired fifteen years' experience as a fund manager for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, specialising in asset allocation mainly for international corporate clients.

In her spare time she is a keen choral singer who also enjoys skiing, tennis and walking.

Newsletter Editor: Mandy Payne.

Letters for publication are welcome, and should be sent by email to

Membership Secretary: Kenneth Bodman, email

Professor David A Bender BSc, PhD is Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at University College London. His research has been mainly in the area of tryptophan, niacin and vitamin B6, and especially the role of vitamin B6 in steroid hormone action. His main activity is teaching, especially to Medical students, and he is Sub-Dean (Education) of the University College London Medical School.

He has written Amino Acid Metabolism (John Wiley & Sons, 1975, second edition 1985); Nutritional Biochemistry of the Vitamins (Cambridge University Press, 1992, 2nd edition 2003); and Introduction to Nutrition and Metabolism (UCL Press, 1993, third edition CRC Press, 2002). Jointly with his father, Prof Arnold E Bender he has written Food Tables (OUP 1986); Food Labelling (OUP 1991); Nutrition for Medical Students (John Wiley & Sons, 1982); A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition (OUP 1995, third edition 2008); Nutrition - a Reference Handbook (OUP 1997); Food Tables and Labelling (OUP, 1999); Benders' Dictionary of Nutrition and Food Technology, 8th Edition, (Woodhead Publishing 2006). Jointly with Brian Barker he was editor of the 4th edition of Vitamins in Medicine (William Heinemann Medical, 1980, 1982).

He has also written a series of computer programs for use in schools and colleges: The Foods You Eat for nutrient analysis of diets and Biochemical Simulations, a series of computer simulations of laboratory exercises in biochemistry. He is an executive editor of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. Email:

Dr Susan Bewley is a consultant obstetrician in maternal-fetal medicine at Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. As Director of Obstetrics and Clinical Director at this busy inner-city teaching hospital she helped shape and lead what has become one of the country's most highly regarded maternity units. During the last 15 years she has been responsible for setting up many innovative services, for example, personal bereavement, perinatal mental health and routine enquiry and domestic violence advocacy. Susan has been an expert advisor to government, NHS and independent reviews of maternity services, and chaired the RCOG Ethics Committee 2004-7. Her research centres around severe maternal morbidity and she has authored over 200 publications including many influential reviews and has edited three books. She has always been a "critical friend" of Healthwatch, devoted to the cause of rational, empathic and evidence-based medicine, but is ready to make the move from the armchair to action.

Walli Bounds trained in midwifery but has been involved in contraceptive research for 34 years, first at the Family Planning Association, subsequently as research co-ordinator at the Margaret Pyke Centre (University College London).

She has been involved in a large number of clinical trials, particularly of barrier contraceptives; she writes and lectures on contraceptive use and research techniques.

She brings her particular interest in woman's health issues to the HealthWatch committee, of which she has been a member from the start.

Diana Brahams, Barrister, called to the bar in 1972. Has been a tenant in Old Square Chambers, Gray's Inn since January 1991. Specialises in medical negligence, personal injury and product liability claims. Editing Medico-Legal Journal since 1983 and legal correspondent to The Lancet since 1981. Contributes to textbooks and journals. Founder member of HealthWatch and Concern for the Mentally Ill.

Malcolm Brahams, Solicitor, partner in David Wineman. Honorary Treasurer of Concern for the Mentally Ill, Council member of the Medico-Legal Society. Published Commercial Leases (Collins, 1985) and Property (Croner Publications, 1994).

Professor John Garrow, MD, PhD (St Andrews), FRCP(Ed), FRCP(Lond): Chairman HealthWatch 1991-93, 1997-1999, 2003-2005. Editor: European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1988-1999. Formerly Professor of Human Nutrition, University of London, Hon consultant physician St Bartholomew's, St Mark's, Royal London & Northwick Park Hospitals; Head, Nutrition Research Unit MRC Clinical Research Centre, Harrow. Member of Dept of Health Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy (COMA), Chairman, Joint Advisory Committee on Nutrition Education. Chairman, Association for the Study of Obesity. Author: Obesity and Related Diseases (Churchill-Livingstone 1988) and over 200 peer-reviewed papers on human nutrition. Email:

Dr John Illman is a former editor of General Practioner. He spent five years as medical correspondent on the Daily Mail and eight years on The Guardian as health editor. The immediate past chair of the Medical Journalists Asssociation, he divides his time between writing, lecturing and media consultancy work. He is a visting lecturer in medical journalism at the University of Westminster and is writing a series of books on mental health. His former titles include The Body Machine with Christiaan Barnard. He has received several awards. Email:

Caroline Richmond has degrees in zoology and physiology.

She has worked in medical research, publishing, and journalism, and was a founder member of HealthWatch.

She now writes obituaries of doctors and other people connected with healthcare.

She has, or has had, two different kinds of non-Hodgkins lymphoma and has had a successful stem cell transplant.

Dr Gillian Robinson is an Associate Specialist in Sexual and Reproductive Health, at St Giles Hospital in London. She qualified from St Bartholomew's Hospital having taken an intercalated BSc in Pharmacology, then specialised in Obstetrics and Gynaecology . She undertook a research project on the effects of the COC-containing third generation progestogens which formed the basis of her MD thesis, and is now work in women's health in the community.

Les Rose is a freelance consultant clinical scientist, and has worked for 28 years in managing clinical trials, training and advising clinical researchers, and evaluating results of trials. He coordinates a group of experts associated with Sense About Science, who are working in support of evidence-based medicine. This group was responsible for the letter which was sent to NHS trusts in May 2006, requesting them to avoid treatments which lack evidence of efficacy and safety. He regularly writes and broadcasts on this and related topics. Les is a Fellow of the Institute of Clinical Research, and a Member of the Institute of Biology, and serves on the editorial boards of both organisations' house journals

Click here for the declarations of potential conflicts of interest of committee members