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BackCare's Vice Patrons

Professor Dame Carol M Black DBE MD FRCP MACP FMedSci

Professor Dame Carol Black is the National Director for Health and Work, Chair of the Nuffield Trust and Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. She is the immediate past President of the Royal College of Physicians.

A Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a member of the PostGraduate Medical Education & Training Board, she is also a Governor of the Health Foundation, the Picker Institute, the University of Brighton and a non-Executive Director on the Board of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement.

Dame Carol is a Master of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of over 15 other Medical Royal Colleges and Faculties, and has been awarded an Honorary DSc from the University of Bristol and an Honorary MD from the Universities of Nottingham, Leicester and Sheffield. She is a Fellow of University College London, Lucy Cavendish College of the University of Cambridge and a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute.

Dame Carol is also a Professor of Rheumatology at the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London. Her unit at the Royal Free Hospital has become the major centre for clinical care and research in Europe and is internationally renowned. In 2002 Dame Carol was awarded the CBE for her work in this field and in 2005 she was awarded the DBE for services to medicine.

Dame Carol says:
“The work of BackCare is having the influence it so deserves. There is now wider recognition of the impact of back pain and the enormous social, work and health costs it brings. The challenge has now been ta` up nationally in the policy context of improving the health and well-being of working age people, although we know of course that back pain can affect people of all ages and circumstances - schoolchildren, new mothers, people at work, or the elderly and retired.

It is recognised too that steps towards better means of prevention, more effective means of treatment and management, and well-informed development of policies for school, health, and work depend on a sound evidence base. This is growing significantly, supporting standards of care that increasingly should guide both the expectations of people whose lives are restricted by back pain and the actions of health professionals, therapists, carers, parents and employers who have roles in overcoming this problem.

BackCare has a fine record in this field and I am delighted to become a Vice Patron and to give all the support I can in its endeavours.”

Ken Livingstone

Message of support from Ken Livingstone, ex Mayor of London
Back pain is a serious problem for many of us. It affects millions of Londoners - myself included. Conditions resulting from back pain cost the UK £6 billion each year in benefits, treatments and lost production.

As the only national charity to focus solely on this problem BackCare deserves our full support. Join me in helping Londoners stay healthy.

Dr Ann Redgrave MB BS DO

Ann Redgrave qualified as a medical doctor in 1984 from Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, London and initially pursued a career in orthopaedic surgery, having a particular interest in Sports Medicine. Due to a time conflict between medicine and her own international rowing career she took a sabbatical in 1988 to prepare for the Seoul Olympic Games. Whilst on sabbatical, disillusioned with the repeated dismissals of her orthopaedic colleagues to often disabling low back pain she explored the possible directions in which to develop her expertise further. Impressed by the response of her husband, Sir Steven Redgrave, to osteopathic medicine for an acute lumbar disc prolapse she decided to cross train as an osteopath. She completed her training at the British School of Osteopathy early in 1990 and founded the Redgrave Clinic later that year.

Alongside the Redgrave Clinic, which specialises in musculoskeletal medicine, Dr Redgrave continued to pursue her interest in Sports Medicine. She has worked with a number of different sports, having a specialist interest in rowing. She was Chief Medical Officer to GB Rowing from 1992-2001 attending the everyday needs of athletes and travelling abroad with the team to competitions including the Olympic Games. Although now retired from this position, Dr Redgrave continues to be used as a consultant to advise GB Rowing on medical issues.

Dr Redgrave's services to Sports Medicine have been acknowledged by the academic world with the award of two honorary degrees, one from Loughborough University in 2001 and one from the University of Staffordshire in 2004. GB Rowing awarded her a medal of honour when she retired in 2001.

It is her belief that the servicedelivery to elite sport and the general public should be of a similar standard and this is the philosophy of her clinic. She feels strongly that treatment should be sought early and, where possible, encourages prevention as well as reactive treatments.