I am a public health doctor and I retired in 2017 as Director of Public Health and as an NHS board member in NHS Lanarkshire. For my Fellowship in 2000 I studied substance misuse among minority ethnic groups in Canada, which helped my work in public health, particularly in health improvement.

The Fellowship spurred me to broaden my public health skills in health services public health. Consequently, I worked at a corporate and strategic level and achieved a good understanding of UK, Scottish and local governments.

The Fellowship gave me greater confidence and in retirement I remain active as a member of the Steering Committee of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP), a trustee of UK-Med (a charity providing health assistance in humanitarian emergencies) and a board member of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). I am a regular columnist for the National Medical Journal of India writing the Letter from Glasgow, a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Glasgow.