The Team
Dr Ella Bennett MBChB PGCert
Head of Operations
Ella is an anaesthetic trainee currently based in the South East of Scotland. She has an interest in remote and rural medicine having worked in New Zealand, Queensland and the Shetland Islands. When not working, Ella enjoys cycling, running and hiking and has provided medical support for a number of sporting events. She is looking forward to taking a break from training to do more of all of the above!
Dr Alex Reid MBChB BSc (Hons) PGCE
Assistant Head of Operations
Alex is a winter mountaineering, ski touring and mountain bike instructor working for various organisations including Glenmore Lodge. He holds the highest UK instructional qualifications in winter climbing, mountaineering, ski mountaineering and mountain biking, the Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor, Mountain Ski Leader and Level 3 Mountain Bike Leader. He has led several expeditions for Outlook Expeditions and World Challenge varying from Malawi to Bolivia, with personal first ascents of mountains in Kyrgyzstan.
Currently based in the Scottish Highlands, mixing life as an ACCS Anaesthetics trainee, with mountaineering and skiing work.
Dr Joanne Cozens MBChB DMCC FRGS
Co-Lead Editor
Jo has combined travel with expedition work across Kenya, South Africa, Costa Rica, The Arctic, and the South Pacific, as well as working on sports events across Europe. She’s recently made the switch from Anaesthetics to GP, and is currently completing the Diploma in Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine whilst supporting expeditions across the globe. She plans to develop her interest in Global Health alongside GP training. You’ll find her exploring the mountains on foot or skis, playing netball and planning adventures with friends and family in her spare time.
Dr Hannah Phelan MBChB MRCP FRCA DTMH
Co-Lead Editor
Hannah is an Anaesthesia trainee in Scotland where she relishes any chance to head north into the mountains. She has been involved in medicine and critical care in a number of countries including Argentina, Malawi and Ecuador and, most recently, spent six months working in anaesthetics in Zambia.
Dr Tom Beddis BMedSci (Hons) MBChB DTMH
Advertising and Finance
Tom is an ACCS-Emergency Medicine Trainee in the North West of England currently working in A&E. After finishing Foundation Training he spent a year in Malawi where he acted as a volunteer as part of the UN’s COVID-19 response. He then furthered his interest in Tropical Medicine by completing the DTMH at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. When not in the hospital you will find him out running in the hills, cycling or pursuing his passion for landscape photography.
Dr Constance Osborne MBBS BSc (Hons) AFHEA FAWM DTM&H
Editor; Evidence Explorer Lead
constance@theadventuremedic.com
Connie is a junior doctor based in London, but is more often found exploring the great outdoors in muddy boots. She is passionate about wilderness medicine education, having developed an internationally accredited training course at King’s College university. As a fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine, she is always looking to add new skills and experiences to her repertoire. Most recently, she has become a highly qualified blister specialist working as a medic on ultramarathons. She is thrilled to be a part of the Adventure Medic community and looks forward to learning from all the intrepid individuals that it attracts.
Dr Alex Taylor MBChB DTMH IDEWM Summer ML
Editor; Masterclass Series Lead
Alex is an Emergency Medicine Trainee in the South West. She has interests in Global Health, Expedition and Pre-Hospital Medicine. She has a habit of saying ‘yes’ to any outdoor opportunity and has been an expedition medic in Antarctica, Africa, Costa Rica, the Amazon, Fiji and South-east Asia. She enjoys teaching wilderness medicine and has completed Diplomas in Expedition and Wilderness Medicine, and Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, as well as Summer Mountain Leader. She is currently completing a Global Health Masters with a dissertation looking into care of local expedition participants on Kilimanjaro. Like Shona; she is trying to translate her former outdoor kiwi lifestyle into the wilds of the South West enjoying rock climbing, mountain trips, biking and ski-touring.
Dr Imara Gluning BMBS MSc
Editor; Global Health Lead
Imara is a Junior Doctor passionate about global health having lived in seven countries during her childhood: born in Kenya and subsequently moving to Italy, the USA, Sudan, Laos, Thailand, and the UK. She is determined to use her medical training to help improve healthcare across the globe and to encourage others to do the same! She completed a MSc in Nutrition for Global Health at LSHTM and did the Bristol Global Emergency Medicine fellowship in 2021-22. She currently volunteers with the Northern Rangelands Trust, Dharura Charity and Endeavour Medical in North-Eastern Kenya to scope health needs in remote communities and organise medical electives. Her happy place is by the sea with a love for swimming, diving and sailing.
Dr Abbey Wrathall MBChB BMedSci (Hons)
Editor; Access Lead
Abbey is an Emergency Medicine Trainee and Summer Mountain Leader, currently based in North Wales but having worked across Scotland. She has a keen interest in Pre-Hospital Medicine within the UK, especially within Mountain Rescue Teams. She is also working towards her winter ML. When not balancing sleep with an ED rota, she can be found running, skiing, biking, climbing and mountaineering; across North Wales, the Scottish Highlands and Europe.
Dr Rogier Steins MD MSc
Editor; European Lead
Rogier is a general practitioner from the Netherlands. He was able to combine his medical career with his love for the outdoors and lived in Canada, South Africa and Aruba. Most recently, he worked as a ship’s doctor in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Besides his work as a general practitioner, he is also the team physician of the elite swimmers (HPC Eindhoven), a dive medical examiner and part of the World Skate medical commission. In his spare time he loves to go kitesurfing.
Dr Liv Grover-Johnson BSc MD PGCert
Editor; Australasian Lead
Liv has worked as a summer doctor at Casey Research Station with the Australian Antarctic Division, on camel-treks through the Simpson desert, and on a boat on the Great Barrier Reef in support of citizen science projects. Liv was first inspired to pursue medicine after meeting some incredible young doctors on a two-month expedition to Svalbard in 2010. They were trip leaders and medics for this polar adventure and left her with a lifelong desire to integrate travel, expedition and wilderness with her training. Since then, she has pursued both her medical studies and outdoor skills with the mission to support science, research, conservation, and exploration in the wildest and most remote corners of this planet. Liv has completed Grad Certificates in Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments, and in Antarctic Studies. She is currently training in Anaesthesia and Rural Generalist Medicine.
Dr Holly Andrews BMBS DTMH
Editor
Holly is an anaesthetics trainee, spreading her career so far across the UK. From Jersey in the Channel Islands to spending time in the West of Scotland during core training and lately taking up a retrieval post in North Wales. She has been involved in expeditions in the rainforest and with IPPG at altitude in the Himalayas and supported many in their impressive endeavours running ultras in austere environments. She has volunteered in both a medical and leadership capacity in the European refugee camps and has a strong interest in making medical partnerships in this setting bidirectionally beneficial. When not working she is found racing triathlon or hunting out new ski touring routes.
Dr Kirsty Benton BSc MBBS MSc
Editor
Kirsty is an Anaesthetic trainee in the South West. She previously worked in Public Health and has volunteered in posts in Indonesia, Switzerland and Tanzania. She has worked on expeditions in South East Asia, Europe, South and Central America. These included cycling, trekking and supporting research groups in the jungle and marine environment. She also enjoys teaching on wilderness training courses. Her interests include anything outdoors, travelling and meeting people with similar interests.
Dr Millie Wood BSc MBChB
Editor
Millie is a pre-hospital clinical fellow based in the Emergency Department of the Royal Cornwall hospital for the year. She is excited to spend time with SWAST and the air ambulance to gain more experience in the world of PHEM during her junior years with a desire to pursue this path after ACCS. She has been blissfully unaware of the struggles of the NHS living and working in emergency medicine in Western Australia for the last 2 years but is happy to be “home” and swimming and surfing without the constant fear of shark bites! When not at work, can be found on the coast path running, cycling, in the sea or just generally procrastinating from doing anything indoors-based!
Dr Jade Hanley BA (Hons) BMBS
Editor
Jade is a Junior Doctor currently working in Birmingham. She has a keen interest in Emergency and Humanitarian Medicine. When she isn’t at work can usually be found walking/ running/ wild swimming in the UK or in warmer climes…rota permitting! Before completing her Graduate Medicine degree, she worked in South Africa, Italy and Egypt and is excited to take Medicine international too.
Dr Hugh Roberts MBBS
Editor
Hugh is an anaesthetics trainee in Northern England, and is currently completing the International Postgraduate Diploma in Expedition and Wilderness Medicine alongside his training. He has worked on expeditions to Tanzania, India and Indonesia, and has also spent time at sea as the medic on a tall ship. Outside of work, Hugh enjoys SCUBA diving and climbing, and tries to spend as much time as possible either underwater or up a mountain.
Dr Rosie Baker MA (Cantab) BMBS (Hons) FRGS
Editor
Rosie is a Junior Doctor enjoying an F3 of adventure, currently building winter skills while skiing in Norway.
She is passionate about health in remote environments and has been joining expeditions for a decade. Before Medicine, she studied Geography, interned at the World Health Organisation and worked in operations for diverse events from extreme sport to London film sets.
Happiest outside when sea swimming, cycle touring or skiing. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, an enthusiastic and off-beat ukulele player and eclectic artist dabbler.
Dr Jake Adams BMedSci (Hons) MBChB
Editor
Jake is an Emergency Medicine trainee in Cornwall, having previously worked in the South West and Scotland. He has an interest in sports, sustainable adventure, and humanitarian medicine.
Outside of the hospital, Jake has worked as a medic at various outdoor events and sports fixtures, regularly teaches international students, and was the medical lead on a conservation-expedition in Namibia.
He has been on kayaking expeditions in Canada, cycled extensively across Europe and travelled across New Zealand, Mexico, India and America.
When not at work he will be outdoors cycling, climbing or running along the coastal path, or he might just possibly be playing a board game.
Dr Tom Everett MBBS/BSc MSc MRCGP FRGS
Editor
Tom is a General Practitioner with a background of experience in Anaesthesia, Emergency, Diving and Expedition Medicine. He is interested in the challenges and opportunities that remote working brings. His expedition work includes Raleigh International, Jubilee Sailing Trust, Himalayan trekking, Ships doctor crossings of the Atlantic and Southern Ocean as well as deployment with a team overwintering in Antarctica. He completed MSc Remote and Global Healthcare and has lived and worked in New Zealand, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, Russia, Sint Maarten, Nepal, Devon and now Scotland. A growing list of hobbies includes backcountry skiing, cycling, running, swimming and motorcycling. Tom is enjoying living near the ocean, going diving and pursuing a sailing scholarship to become a commercially endorsed RYA Yachtmaster. He was recently nominated as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Laura Bond
Editor
Laura is currently working as an anaesthetic registrar in Wellington, New Zealand after completing her core training in Glasgow.
She has accompanied charity trips to Italy and expedition trips to Peru and Nepal. Her familiarity with Global Health Partnerships has been fostered by a recent 6 months spent volunteering with the Zambia Anaesthesia Development Partnership. This is something Laura hopes to build on in the future, by taking on further roles advocating for safe worldwide anaesthesia.
When not working Laura enjoys any form of exercise involving a hill from trying to avoid concussions on her mountain bike to trail running and splitboarding. Bikepacking is a new venture since her move to Aotearoa; she recently cycled the length of the South Island.
India West
Social Media Lead
India is a medical student at Barts and The London. Over the last few years she has spent her time working abroad as a medic in deserts, jungles and mountains, then closer to home assisting on Wilderness Medicine courses. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. With her love of the outdoors, she spends most of her time escaping London to run, hike or climb across the country. She is working toward her Summer Mountain Leader qualification and looking forward to upcoming expeditions in the Alps and Central Asia.
Luc Woodall Gillard
Photography and Media
Luc works as an expedition medic and photographer in some of the worlds most remote environments including the arctic and jungle. As he is about to finish his paramedic degree, he is spending the next year focusing on scientific and exploration expeditions mainly in the desert. While in the U.K. he works both in A&E as a medical assistant and out of hospital as a member of London Search and Rescue, specialising in swift water rescue. Luc is also an apprentice instructor in wilderness medicine and survival. His media work specialises in adventure and photojournalism and he is a current contributor to the Young Voices Journalism program.
Dental
Burjor Langdana MDS FDSRCS NZDRex IQE
Resident Expedition Dentist
Burjor is an NHS dentist in England and the founder of WildernessExpeditionDentistry.com. He is a faculty member for RCPS Glasgow and the University of Exeter and provides Dental training for NATO SOTC, WEM, COROM and R2Ri. His first taste of remote work came while running dental camps in India (where he did his Masters in Oral Surgery) and later in the Sultanate of Oman. Burjor deepened and broadened his expedition medical experience through spending four seasons in the Antarctic; working as a VSO dentist in Malawi, and working with Mobile Surgical Services in New Zealand. He is the contributing author and editor for the dental chapter in the new Oxford Handbook of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine. He has also written and lectured extensively on his subject, and provides email and phone support for event medics. His main passion these days is to train medics in the dark art of Expedition Dentistry, through intensive, hands-on workshops.
Webmaster
Dr Greg Cranston MBBCh FRCEM FIMC
Webmaster and Director
Greg is a Consultant in Prehospital and Emergency Medicine between South Wales and Bristol, and a dedicated mountain biker. After spending time in Nepal and New Zealand, he worked as a prehospital care doctor, first with the Welsh Ambulance Service and Wales Air Ambulance, and more recently with the Great Western Air Ambulance.
Directors
Dr Matt Wilkes PhD MCEM FRCA FAWM FRGS
Founder and Director
Matt is a doctor and paraglider pilot, with a background in anaesthesia and critical care. He began Adventure Medic to combine a hospital career with remote medicine and the great outdoors. Matt has worked in various guises around the world, mostly in the high mountains, and has flown all over East Africa with AMREF Flying Doctors. He is the Independent Medical Officer for the Extreme Environments Research Group, University of Portsmouth. Matt leads the Free Flight Physiology Project, is Deputy Director of the RCPSG International Diploma of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine and is Assoc. Director of Clinical Affairs at Current Health Ltd.
Dr Ellie Heath BSc MBChB DRH DFSRH DRCOG MRCGP
Director
Ellie is a GP and yoga teacher in Scotland. She has been a doctor at the IPPG(UK) high-altitude rescue posts in Nepal, the medic for expeditions in Bolivia, Tanzania, India, Cambodia and China. Ellie holds the Diploma in Reproductive Health from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and runs in body and mind.
Dr Shona Main BSc (Hons) MBChB DIMC
Director
Shona is an Emergency Medicine trainee in the South West. She’s worked on expeditions in the mountains, jungle, desert and at sea and supported sports events around Europe. She led the APEX 4 international altitude research trip, has lived and worked in New Zealand and volunteered on posts in the Philippines, India and Uganda. She is often found micro-adventuring with spritely dips at any opportunity or planning trips to the mountains. Shona works in the UK and Alps as faculty on expedition training courses and lectures on the Plymouth University Global Health MSc.
Patrons
Professor Chris Imray PhD FRCS FRCP
Adventure Medic Patron
Chris Imray is a Consultant Vascular and Transplant Surgeon at UHCW NHS Trust, and an academic at both Coventry University and Warwick Medical School. He has traveled the world as a climber and researcher, summiting both Cho Oyu and Everest and publishing over 130 peer reviewed papers.
Chris is a member of both the Alpine and the Climbers’ Club and sits on the Mount Everest Foundation Screening Committee. He is an acknowledged expert in cold injuries and runs the UK Frostbite Advice Service for the British Mountaineering Council.
Dr Edi Albert MBChB MSc MRCGP FRACGP FACRRM DiMM
Adventure Medic Patron
Edi Albert is generalist in rural and remote medicine, based in Tasmania, but regularly working in various remote locations around Australia including aero-medical retrieval with the Royal Flying Doctors Service, at Perisher Ski Resort, and has previously deployed to Antarctica. He is director of the Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments Program at the University of Tasmania and a founding director of the pre-hospital care charity Sandpiper Australia. He travels widely and enjoys climbing, kayaking, hiking, skiing and sailing.
