Ben Bravery

A trained Zoologist working as a scientist in Beijing, Dr Ben Bravery was only 28 years old when he was diagnosed with bowel cancer and made the decision to become a doctor. Patient first, and now a fully qualified doctor, Ben decided he needed to “get inside the system” to enact change and empower patients to be seen as humans and not just a “bed number”. As a patient, “I’d been reduced to a problem and they’d forgotten there was a person there,” Ben explains. “It’s about taking an interest in the patient as a person and then connecting as people.” Inspired by an appetite for change and filled with optimism about the future of medicine, Dr Bravery aims to bring the doctor patient relationship a little closer and shares his personal journey as a patient, medical student and now doctor, including his own experiences with self-doubt and anxiety and what he believes needs to change to ensure the ‘system’ doesn’t forget about the people at the heart of it. Link to Ben’s book https://www.benbravery.com/