5 minutes with Professor Alan Maryon-Davis

What can you tell us about your career journey up to this point? Has public health always been a passion?

I graduated from St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in 1969 and then focused on general medicine and rheumatology. In 1974 I had a light-bulb moment which switched me on to public health. As I was cycling down the Walworth Road, I saw a plaque on the wall above the child clinic which read: "The health of the people is the highest law." It got me thinking about prevention and the root causes of ill-health. I decided to pause my clinical work then and instead do an MSc in Social Medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. I never looked back!

My first public health job was as medical advisor to the Health Education Council working on national healthy living campaigns. After that, I spent several years as a consultant in public health medicine in Lambeth and the South East Thames Regional Health Authority where I directed HealthQuest SouthEast, at that time the UK’s largest health and lifestyle survey. I then became Director of Public Health for Southwark Primary Care NHS Trust tackling the many challenges of a diverse and mainly deprived inner-city population – truly fascinating stuff.

I retired from the NHS in 2007 and was appointed Honorary Professor of Public Health at King’s and elected President of the UK Faculty of Public Health and Chair of the Royal Society for Public Health. I was also Chair of the children's charity Best Beginnings and subsequently the alcohol charity Alcohol Change.

I have been teaching on the MBBS course since 1987 and more recently the Masters in Public Health (MPH) course at King’s. For several years I also ran a popular study module on Medicine and the Media which was great fun to teach.

All the while, I developed a parallel career as a media doc since the 70s – which was particularly rare at the time! I have appeared countless times on the TV and radio, including co-presenting the peak-time TV series Bodymatters. I also authored ten books on good health and wrote a weekly Dear Dr Alan column for Woman magazine for 17 years. I am still frequently called by the media, mainly to talk about COVID-19 these days.

Then and now: Alan working as the Radio 1 Doc in the 1970s and being interviewed by the BBC on coronavirus in 2020.

What are you working on outside of King’s?

Currently, I chair the Public Health Advisory Committee for NICE developing a national guideline on promoting wellbeing at work, and I'm also Chair of Medact, campaigning for health equity and justice.

Climate sense and public health go hand in hand so, I am very involved in a community energy group in south Wiltshire, putting solar panels on schools and farm buildings, converting fuel-poor homes to heat-pumps and setting up an electric-car club.

How do you feel about being awarded an MBE?

I am amazed and delighted, especially when I think of how many truly deserving people there are out there helping us to get through this awful pandemic.

What do you do in your spare time?

I'm a founder member of the humorous singing trio called Instant Sunshine, which began at St Thomas's in 1966 and went on to become regulars on Radio 4, record five albums, perform all over the world and after 50 years do a private performance for the Queen - but that's another story!

QUICK-FIRE Q&A…

What’s the best thing that happened to you this month?

The COVID jab.

Who inspires you most and why?

Sir David Attenborough. Not just his mission to save the planet and its amazing diversity, but also his wonderful way of imparting knowledge and enthusiasm without ever being patronising. Just like my old biology teacher at school, Mr Pask, who first inspired me to go into medicine.

What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?

Be fair. Be forthright. Be flexible. And give it all you’ve got!