ABOUT John

For more than three decades I’ve worked in hospital medicine and public health across the UK and Africa, witnessing the widening gap in health and wealth between rich and poor. My mission is to translate research into action and to work alongside communities and policy makers to build healthier, fairer societies.

My Story

I grew up in Romford, East London, the fourth of five children of Irish parents. After studying medicine and public health I moved to Bradford in 1996 to join the Bradford Royal Infirmary. Over the past three decades I have worked in hospitals and communities across the UK and Africa. My career has been guided by a determination to reduce health inequalities, from supporting child health studies in Pakistan and leading an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone to establishing public health training programmes in Eswatini.

In 2007 I founded the Born in Bradford cohort study, now following more than 20,000 families. This groundbreaking research sparked the world’s first experimental birth cohort, Born in Bradford’s Better Start, and led to ActEarly, a whole‑systems City Collaboratory improving children’s life chances in deprived communities in Bradford and London. I also established and lead the Bradford Institute for Health Research and the Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research, directing programmes like the NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Applied Research Collaboration and Connected Yorkshire.

As a Visiting Professor in Clinical Epidemiology at the Universities of York, Bristol, Leeds and Bradford, I have authored over 600 papers and three textbooks and secured more than £160 million in research funding. Through my work with the BBC on series such as Born in Bradford, The NHS Frontline, The Coronavirus Doctor’s Diary and Ebola Diaries, and through my books Magic and Medicine and Ebola Diaries, I share the stories of patients and health workers to advocate for evidence‑based policies and compassionate care.

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