Hope for the globe

When did you first encounter global health?

Inequalities exist everywhere. I grew up in a small village in a region of England where the coal mines had gone, and steel works were bulldozed during the 1980s. At the state school up the road I soon realised that coming from a better-off commuter village made all the difference to my aspirations, education, and, ultimately, future course in life. This left an impression that will stay with me but also optimism that inequalities can be overcome when people have the opportunities to realise their potential. A brief project in rural India when I was 17 opened my eyes to the wider world and the global differences in health between and within countries and sparked a continuing …