GP turned prison doctor and author to deliver first Dame Clare Marx memorial lecture

A GP who became a prison doctor and successful author will this evening (Monday 25 November) present the inaugural memorial lecture in the memory of former General Medical Council (GMC) Chair Dame Clare Marx.Dame Clare, a surgeon, chaired the regulator from 2019 until stepping down following a cancer diagnosis in the summer of 2021. She died in November 2022, aged 68.

The first Dame Clare Marx memorial lecture will be delivered by Dr Amanda Brown, who has written a series of best-selling memoirs about her time working as a doctor in UK prisons.

She will reflect on her career, including her leap from being a GP to working in the prison service, and share some stories that have shaped her working life, such as helping inmates who, despite their crimes, still need a compassionate doctor.

The event, in front of an invited audience in central London, will be introduced by the GMC’s current Chair, Professor Dame Carrie MacEwen.

Dame Carrie said:

‘Dame Clare was an inspiration to many and this event, with a speaker who, like Clare, is known for compassion and kindness, will be a fitting celebration of her legacy. It is especially poignant as it will be two years, almost to the day, since her death.’

Dr Brown said:

‘I’m both honoured and delighted to have been asked to present the first Dame Clare Marx memorial lecture. She made a significant contribution to the profession and to our health services, and a lecture in her name is a wonderful way of honouring her memory.