Dr. Agatha Nortley-Meshe is a practising GP in South London and is also an Assistant Medical Director for the London Ambulance Service (LAS) where she leads on integrated urgent care. Agatha is an inspirational leader at the LAS and, in her role as Head of Integrated Urgent Care (clinical), she provides strategic clinical leadership for the Trust’s NHS111 services, which cover 40% of London.

Agatha chairs the LAS’s Black and Minority (BME) Ethnic Network and is the Trust’s clinical lead for the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES). She also sits on the national ambulance BME forum.

In 2018 she completed the NHS WRES Expert programme as part of cohort 1, and has used this experience to champion the BME agenda within LAS, making a real difference to the working lives of BME staff and volunteers.

Agatha is passionate about supporting others to develop confidence and leadership skills. From her own experience, she is very much aware of the inequalities facing people from BME backgrounds in terms of career progression.

She says: “Although society has come a long way, people from BME backgrounds still have to work that bit harder to move up the career ladder: you can't be average, you have to excel”.

She is keen to support others to do just that and says: “It’s a case of putting yourself out there, constantly developing your skills and making the connections you need in order to move forward”.

She is a role model to colleagues of BME backgrounds, saying: “Where people can see someone who looks like them in a senior position it reinforces the idea that they can achieve their own aspirations. As leaders from BME backgrounds, we have to be visible, approachable, provide support and open doors for others to develop and excel”.

Agatha is a trained mentor, and over the years has provided informal coaching and mentoring to support personal and career development for healthcare colleagues. This includes providing mentoring to women from several different countries via the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.

Ade Odunlade is a qualified Health Care Leader with a wealth of clinical and operational management experience gained from working in a variety of senior positions over the last 25 years within the public and private sector.

He is highly motivated to deliver clear outcomes and results for patients and staff. Ade has a wealth of knowledge and a demonstrable track record of delivering outcomes for the Trust.

Ade has an underlying philosophy of helping individuals to achieve and deliver high standard of work. He has a sense of responsibility in ensuring and safeguarding high standards by holding people to account and enabling staff to focus on patients’ needs with compassion and care.

As a mentor, Ade asks his mentees not to be passive receivers but active participants. He also encourages staff to honour commitments, expect support but don’t expect miracles without hard work, communicate clearly, assume responsibility for own development, be teachable, and to listen to what is being said and not said, especially how it is being said.

Akala is an award-winning hip-hop artist, author, journalist and activist on equality.

He founded The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company; a music theatre production company aimed at exploring the social, cultural and linguistic parallels between the works of Shakespeare and that of modern-day hip-hop artists. Alongside the patronage of Ian Mckellen, the organisation has collaborated with the likes of Ed Sheeran, Kate Tempest and George the Poet to bring bespoke educational and social entrepreneurship development programmes to young people.

He has spoken at length on policing and the profiling of black communities, and has led the debate on decolonising the curriculum in British schools and universities.

His book, Natives, has been a great success and sold more than 100,000 and received excellent reviews.

As well as her NHS role, Anna is also a local authority Councillor; she is very passionate about humanity and treats everyone with respect and dignity.

She supports people with severe and enduring mental health problems during their journey towards recovery. In this process Anna acts as an advocate especially for service users who are struggling to secure the appropriate accommodation necessary for their recovery. Anna works in collaboration with other health care professionals, local authorities, carers and other agencies to ensure that service users’ identified needs relating to accommodation are sorted out prior to discharge.

Anna’s non-judgemental approach has always given motivation to the less privileged especially those from ethnic minorities. She has always stood firm for justice and always given people confidence that those from ethnic minorities are equally represented in decision-making within the Trust and in the wider community.

Anna is an exemplary professional who encourages other black women to explore their potential irrespective of whatever situation they find themselves. She is outspoken, tolerant, accommodating, assertive and a good listener – truly, a woman of substance.

Carmen Brooks-Johnson, a retired St. George’s midwife, was a much-loved and respected member of staff – so much so, that their birth centre is named after her – the Carmen Suite.

Carmen was born in Jamaica and came to England in 1961 to train as a nurse. A few years after qualifying, she decided to train as a midwife. She started working at St George’s in 1979 as a Senior Sister in the new delivery suite on Lanesborough wing.

She became a supervisor of midwives in 1991, later becoming an advanced midwifery practitioner in the community, and working in a team integrating hospital and community in 1997.

Following retirement from the midwifery service, Carmen worked in the Trust’s occupational health team on the staff bank for two years.

Doreen Lawrence is an anti-racist campaigner who seeks justice for her murdered son Stephen Lawrence, who died in 1993.

Doreen was born in Jamaica and emigrated to the UK with her family in the 1960s when she was nine years old. She completed her schooling in and around Greenwich and worked in a bank for seven years before having her first child, Stephen, in 1974.

By 1993, after having two further children, Stuart and Georgina, she was living in Plumstead and enrolled on a counselling course at the University of Greenwich. It was also 1993 when her son Stephen was stabbed to death in a racially motivated attack in Eltham. Doreen’s history from then is defined by her love for Stephen, her moral clarity and her instinct to fight for justice to ensure her son did not die in vain.

She set up the Stephen Lawrence Family Campaign and persevered through many obstacles to push for an inquiry into her son’s murder. The damning enquiry touched on major issues with policing and the justice system with regards to black people. Many reforms, based directly on this investigation, have since been introduced and Doreen has emerged as one of the country’s leading voices on black injustice. She founded the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust to continue to provide support to black communities across the capital and the country.

Doreen has received many deserved accolades and distinctions for her work on racial justice, including an OBE and a peerage at the House of Lords. In her community, she will always be remembered as a loving mother whose grief and love for her family changed the course of the nation’s history for the better.

Dr Harold Moody was born in Kingston, Jamaica on the 8th October 1882.

Moody moved to London in 1904 to study medicine at King’s College Hospital and qualified as a doctor in 1910. However due to racial prejudice, he was unable to work at the hospital despite graduating at the top of his class. This experience led Moody to set up his own GP practice in Peckham, south east London in 1913.

Moody offered his services to poor families for free and also opened up his home to ‘travelling black people who couldn’t find a room or a meal elsewhere’.

The racial prejudice Moody faced in London motivated him to campaign for the rights of black people. In 1931, he founded the League of Coloured Peoples, a pressure group which lobbied trade unions, the Civil Service and Parliament for the improvement of race relations. Moody fought for causes including employment rights for black merchant seamen, fair pay for Trinidadian oil workers and the lifting of the colour bar in the British Armed Forces that had prevented the appointment of black officers.

Dr Harold Moody died on 24 April 1947, shortly after returning to England from the West Indies. His campaigning is credited as being key to the passing of the Race Relations Act in 1965.

Foluke grew up in the city of Ibadan, Nigeria. She joined NEL in January 2019 as an Information Governance Subject Matter Expert Manager. She brought a wealth of data protection knowledge to the team, and actively impacts on new and exciting projects taking place within the NHS. She is a good team player and is always willing to help and lend a listening ear.

Following the killing of George Floyd and the publication of the PHE racial disparity report, she recently delivered a workshop on ‘Unconscious Bias from Awareness to Action’. Team members found the workshop to be really useful as it strengthened the teams understanding of how their actions impact others.

Her colleagues describe her as very approachable, warm and kind, always offering support, displaying great leadership qualities by being instrumental in promoting equality and diversity within the team. Foluke has a high emotional intelligence and will call to check if team members are ok when they seem to be stressed. She also supports colleagues with caring and patience. In addition, Foluke encourages team members with personal study, offering her support for free to allow equal access to educational opportunities for those who cannot afford expensive training courses.

Outside of work, Foluke has been involved in many community activities. For example, she ran a Saturday school (Rhema Learning Zone) which provided free and supplementary education for children (aged 4-16 years old) from all over London. She also organised summer schools, weekends and family day trips to encourage and reward the children for their hard work. More recently, Foluke has written and directed three plays as well as successfully organised summer and Christmas concerts at her local church. She has also worked to increase the confidence of children at her church by involving them in performing arts.

Foluke is one of the many amazing Black colleagues that we have in NEL. We are proud of our diverse workforce who constantly strive to deliver improved health services to local populations.

Harry Aikines-Aryeetey is a sprinter from Carshalton, and is the first athlete to win gold medals in 100 and 200 metres at the World Youth Championships.

He was named the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2005 and has since raced at the Commonwealth Games, the Olympic Games, the British Athletics Championships, the European Athletics Championships, the World Indoor Athletics Championships, the European Indoor Athletics Championships, and the World Athletics Championships.

He won the 100 metres event at the 2020 British Athletics Championships this year.

Josephine Jim is a paediatric nurse who has been working on the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) for 10 years at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust (GOSH).

Several years ago, Josephine won the Marie Curie Nurse of the Year Award.

Her key responsibilities as a PICU nurse include looking after critically ill patients who may have life threatening or life-limiting conditions. She developed a special interest in haemodialysis which has led to her being the lead in this service for about 12 years.

Josephine co-authored the haemodialysis guidelines for ITU nurses and doctors at GOSH as well as the GOSH manual of nursing practices. She has also had the opportunity to act as an ambassador for the department and specialty, showcasing their world class achievements within this service by presenting at conferences in Australia and the United States of America.

As a BAME sister in a leadership position she provides professional advice and support to BAME staff within her unit and strives to be a good role model to them.

The pandemic changed the way Josephine views herself, and her role. She is more determined to advocate for patients and make a difference for the BAME population too.

Ken Wakatama has been a qualified Mental Health Nurse (RMN) since April 1994. He has had a full, varied, enriched and extremely enjoyable career so far, with many challenges and opportunities arising.

Ken initially worked for the Barnet Health authority as a staff nurse for 2 years in the paediatric intensive care unit service. In 1996, he took up employment with the West London NHS Trust as a Staff Nurse working primarily in the HDU and Intensive Care Service.

He feels privileged to have worked across all the clinical settings in Mental Health Services, including in the high secure setting of Broadmoor Hospital. Ken has worked as a team leader, Clinical Nurse Manager, Acting Senior Clinical Manager and regularly provides cover in the capacity of Site Manager.

Ken has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the management and care of a complex group of patients with extensive mental health difficulties. Always looking to develop further, Ken gained a B.Sc. for violence reduction and has represented the Trust in various conferences.

Kofoworola Pratt was the first qualified black nurse to work in the NHS, and was a pioneer of modern nursing in Nigeria. Born in Lagos in 1915, she came to the UK and was the first black student to attend the Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St Thomas’ Hospital.

Kofoworola qualified as a state registered nurse in 1950, was a staff nurse at Evelina London Children’s Hospital in 1952, then a charge nurse at St Thomas’ Hospital the following year.

She returned to Nigeria in 1954, and following the country’s independence, Kofoworola set up a nursing school which was the basis for modern nursing practices in the country. Among her many posts, she became Chief Nursing Officer for Nigeria in 1965 and was the first black woman to be named Vice-President of the International Council of Nurses.

In 1973, Kofoworola was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest international merit for a nurse.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was a globally acclaimed composer, referred to as the African "Mahler".

Samuel was born in Holborn in 1875 and later moved to Croydon. As well as his musical achievements he was also recognised as a civil rights leader who fought against race prejudice.

Conscious of his African descent, Taylor’s classical compositions were heavily influenced by traditional African music and this made him one of the most progressive writers of his time.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor died of pneumonia on 1 September 1912 in Croydon, at the age of 37.

Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Mary Makarau came to the UK in 1974 eager to pursue her dream of working in the NHS as a nurse. After working at Edgware General Hospital and three years of training, she went on to study Midwifery at North Middlesex Hospital and then moved on to working in Paediatrics at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

In 1988, Mary pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Public Services Management, beginning her journey into her current specialism, where she delivers care and support to people living with and affected by HIV, and teaches them how to manage their long-term condition effectively, within the community and within their own homes.

In 1999, Mary embarked on a second degree, Masters in Public Services Management, part-time, whilst still working in the HIV field.

At Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Mary’s outstanding work educating and supporting HIV patients, members of the public and her fellow nursing colleagues has made her a worthy recipient of the Trust’s employee of the month award and coveted Patient Award at their 2019 Staff Awards.

Mary Seacole was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1805. She followed in the footsteps of her Creole mother and became a doctress, nurse and businesswoman. Loving to travel, she coped single-handedly with a cholera epidemic in the Panamanian gold-prospecting town of Cruces.The death of a young child touched her deeply.

“I sat before the flickering fire, with my last patient in my lap – a poor, little, brown-faced orphan, scarce a year old, was dying in my arms, and I was powerless to save it. It may seem strange, but it is a fact, that I thought more of that little child than I did of the men who were struggling for their lives.”

So affected was Mary by this death that she undertook ‘her first and last’ post-mortem examination to try and discover more about the dreaded cholera that had killed the child.

During a dinner in her honour, an American she had nursed back to health from this deadly disease, made the mistake of including this statement in his toast to her:

“I calculate, gentlemen, you’re all as vexed as I am that she’s not wholly white; and I guess, if we could bleach her by any means we would and thus make her acceptable in any company as she deserves to be. Gentlemen, I give you Aunty Seacole!”

Mary was so angry that after a few words of thanks she said:

“But I must say that I don’t altogether appreciate your friend’s kind wishes with respect to my complexion… and as to his offer of bleaching me, I should, even if it were practicable, decline it without any thanks. As to the society which the process might gain me admission into, all I can say is, that judging from the specimens I have met with here and elsewhere, I don’t think that I shall lose much by being excluded from it. So, gentlemen, I drink to you and the general reformation of American manners.”

Mary Seacole then became famous for nursing British soldiers on the frontline during the Crimean War. In London, she had found it impossible to obtain a post with the group of nurses planning to join those who had already left to work under Florence Nightingale.

Mary wondered: “Was it possible that American prejudices against colour had some root here? Did these ladies shrink from accepting my aid because my blood flowed beneath a somewhat duskier skin than theirs?”

Mary overcame all the obstacles and raised the funds to pay for her passage to Turkey. On arrival in the Crimea she set up the British Hotel where she cooked tasty meals and sold provisions. In additions she nursed the soldiers in the battlefield and became widely known as ‘Mother Seacole’.

At the end of the Crimean War Mary Seacole returned to London bankrupt. Fortunately, her many friends rallied to her aid through a series of military fundraising galas. In 1857, she published her bestselling autobiography - Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands.

After more overseas travels Mary died in London on the 14th May 1881. Although the Victorian media had published many articles about her, she was virtually forgotten after her death.

Fortunately, in November 2003 Lord Clive Soley established the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal. There was a long, but successful, fundraising campaign that lasted over 12 years. As a result, a beautiful monument was unveiled in the gardens of London’s St Thomas’ Hospital on the 30th June 2016 by Baroness Floella Benjamin.

Dr. Nnenna Osuji is the Medical Director, Deputy Chief Executive and Caldicott Guardian at Croydon Health Services NHS Trust.

She has been a consultant haematologist for over a decade. Her clinical and academic career, spanning over twenty years in the NHS, has provided insight and appreciation for the complex and challenging nature of healthcare and the many changes that have occurred.

At the heart of her delivery is a genuine love of people, and dedication to continuously improve and innovate the care delivered to them at individual and population levels.

Olive Morris was born in Jamaica in 1952 but moved to South London as a child. She was a political activist in the 1970’s and founded the Brixton Black Women’s Group and the Organisation of Women of African and Asian descent.

Within the Brixton Black Women's Group, she and other members rallied to critically explore the experiences of women in the Black Panther Party. The overall purpose of the group was to raise consciousness so the women could communicate with each other and talk about their daily lives, putting this understanding into a political framework.

The Brixton Black Women's Group pushed for more transparency and unity in their community. Eventually, the group dissolved and transformed into numerous specific groups that were focused on increasing the awareness of the Black struggle.

Patricia started her nursing career on a medical ward, and after a year, worked on an oncology/haematology ward which she loved. She worked there for 9 years and then became a haematology specialist nurse.

She moved to London in 2014 to take up a Head of Nursing role in cancer at St George's. She did this for a year then became a Matron at University College London Hospital (UCLH).

Patricia is described as a caring and compassionate leader who has an excellent vision. Throughout her career she has helped lots of colleagues to progress. ‘Lift as you climb’ is her philosophy which she achieves by encouraging Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) nursing staff to apply for opportunities.

Patricia is also passionate about the digital agenda and is an active member of the Shuri Network, which was developed for women of colour who are interested in the health tech agenda. As a member, Patricia has contributed to webinars on behalf of the network. The talks are based on equality, diversity and inclusion.

Some of Patricia’s past accomplishments include being the founding member and Chair of the UCLH BAME Network for almost 400 members. The BAME network secured £10,000 of funding from Health Education England for the development of mentoring for BAME staff.

Furthermore, she wrote a successful UCLH charity bid to fund support roles for the BAME network, the roles also were able to support the LGBT and women’s network too.

Patricia joined The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust as a Divisional Nurse Director in February 2020. In this short time, Patricia has already made a significant impact as a champion for equality and inclusion.

Miss Samantha Tross is the Lead Orthopaedic Surgeon at Ealing Hospital, specialising in treating conditions of the hip and knee. She became a Consultant in 2005 and was the first female of Afro-Caribbean descent in the UK to do so. In 2018, she scored another first by becoming the first woman in Europe to perform Mako robotic hip surgery.

Miss Tross was born in Guyana, South America and came to England aged 11. She graduated from University College London in 1992. Her basic surgical training was on the Royal London rotation and higher surgical training on Guys & St. Thomas and King’s College Hospitals rotation. She subsequently undertook fellowships in Toronto, Canada and Sydney, Australia.

Apart from her clinical work Miss Tross is an Educational Supervisor, Faculty Group Leader and Director of Core Surgical Training for her hospital, overseeing the training of junior doctors in her Trust. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Medical Case Reports, Examiner for Imperial Medical School exams and recipient of a Black British Business STEM Award for her work promoting science and medical careers to her community. Miss Tross regularly presents at Orthopaedic conferences and is an Associate Professor in Orthopaedics for the University of the Caribbean.

Miss Tross has been profiled in an educational series by Verna Wilkins which is part of the national curriculum for schools. She has been included in the Black Powerlist of 100 most Influential Black Britons since 2009 and was named in Tatlers 100 most Influential doctors in the UK in 2013. She has been featured in the BMJ Careers in 2018 and the Metro and Stylist magazine in 2019. In the same year, she was awarded the WINTRADE Award for Women in the Public Sector and was the keynote speaker for the Mayor’s black history month event at City Hall.

Yomi Ogunzola is the Divisional Manager for Community Nursing at Hounslow and Richmond Healthcare NHS Trust (pictured right in this photo with our medical director).

Yomi’s knowledge and understanding of community nursing is second to none, as he was a community nurse himself for a number of years. Due to this understanding and knowledge, Yomi is a leader who is seen to have great integrity.

Yomi has a strong management team who value all staff equally and strive to deliver high-quality services for patients. This has been against the backdrop of a national shortage of qualified community nurses and an increase in the complexity of patients being treated in their own homes. He and his team have ensured that despite these challenges and at a time of significant change for community nursing, the service has significantly improved across a range of performance and quality standards.

Angela Simiyu, a nurse at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, is one of the Rising Stars, recognised by the Royal College of Nursing to mark Black History Month.

The 30-year-old, who grew up in Kenya, was shocked and excited when she found out she’d been nominated by Kay O’Reilly, the Trust’s lead nurse for respiratory conditions.

She said: “What an honour to represent my Trust this Black History Month. Not only being nominated, but winning, has made me feel elated and highly valued.I love everything about nursing. It’s the only thing I know so I am hugely passionate about it.”

Angela was nominated for her hard work during the Covid-19 pandemic. On one nightshift, she took over running the team on her ward, teaching others how to use new machinery, while keeping patients safe. Being based in a respiratory ward meant Angela has been caring for Covid-19 patients throughout.

As the only nurse in her family, Angela’s caring nature meant she always knew it was what she wanted to do. Having qualified at the Nairobi Hospital, she worked on an endoscopy unit there for two years before her father encouraged her to further her career and experience by moving to the UK.

She’s worked at the Trust, her first experience of the NHS, for the last three years. Although she’s spoken English all her life, Angela still had some language issues when she began nursing in the UK, and fondly remembers how her patients helped her.

She said: “I got confused by ‘tea’ as dinner or an afternoon snack, and a cup of tea. Luckily one of my patients helped me by explaining to ask if they wanted a ‘cup of tea’!”

Martin has been recognised for his pioneering ward-based violence reduction service which he and fellow colleagues set up after operating on young knife victims admitted in their school uniforms.

This award-winning scheme sees hospital staff and case workers at charity St. Giles Trust helping young patients injured through gang crime while they are still being treated in the hospital to help break the cycle of violence at the point of crisis.

In six years, this has reduced the number of young people returning to The Royal London Hospital with further injuries from 45% to less than 1%.

Last year Martin was appointed NHS England’s first clinical director for violence reduction after spending the last decade saving lives and lecturing school children on the dangers of carrying weapons to help prevent stabbings and other violent crimes.

He is a top trauma surgeon who saved the life of the first person stabbed in the London Bridge terror attack and in a huge coincidence, had also saved the victim’s father’s life when he operated on his heart several years earlier.

Martin is a passionate campaigner for fairness and equality, and promotes diverse leadership in private and public services, particularly within the NHS. In 2018, Martin Griffiths won the Hero Doctor Award at the Daily Mirror NHS Heroes awards.