A year of inclusive stories with the Richard Doll Society
The outgoing committee of the Richard Doll Society, Green Templeton’s student-run society for medicine and allied health care, look back over the academic year.
President Reef Ronel (Clinical Medicine, 2022) led the committee’s vital work to make medicine and medical-related studies at Green Templeton open, inclusive, and fun. In September RDS helped fourth-year medical students new to Green Templeton to settle in, with tours, useful information, and a chance to relax over pizza with students already at the college.
In November, Vice President Iza Basharat (Medical Sciences, 2020) organized the society’s Outreach Day for forty Year 12 students, providing them with workshops and others sessions to support their applications to study medicine, especially at Oxford. A student who took part said “the fact I was able to speak to real med students who went through the experience of applying was really helpful and I am super grateful”. Iza commented that “the Access event was a real highlight—it reminded me how powerful it is when people come together to share their stories and open doors for others, and showed how committed GTC is to making higher education more inclusive.”
A highlight of the year, as always, was the annual RDS conference, which this year had the title ‘Untold Stories in Healthcare’. Speakers included rare disease advocate and patient ambassador Aisha Seedat, Professor of Neuroscience & Society Ilina Singh, founder of Medical Herstory and Green Templeton alumna Tori Ford, and Consultant Radiologist Adrian Tang. In the afternoon, Dr Meera Joshi chaired a panel with Dr Nicole Votruba and Professor Catherine Pope, before the conference concluded with a reflective workshop, led by Dr Joshi, on accessing healthcare. Participants praised the “wide range of diverse topics and perspectives, which was truly inspiring”, and the “valuable insights” of the discussions and reflections. The award for best student poster was won by Rosaline De Koning (Medical Sciences, 2017) with her poster titled ‘Layers of stigma: male ME/ CFS patient experiences of the healthcare system.’
Similarly insightful and mind-expanding was a walking tour of Oxford put on for RDS and the Oxford FemTech Society by Uncomfortable Oxford. Organised by Secretary Daniela Krouzkova (Medical Sciences, 2019), the tour gave students a view of Oxford’s long rich history of medical research and practice, from plague at New College to inoculations at the King’s Arms and anatomical dissections at the Bodleian. Throughout the tour reflected on complex aspects of health equity, medical ethics and histories of gender, race and class, contemplating their impact in the past and present.
RDS members also enjoyed formal dinners in March and December – which saw the popular Christmas dinner and quiz. Iza concluded: “One of my highlights this year was connecting with students from so many different backgrounds. RDS events created spaces that felt both welcoming and intellectually enriching.”
The outgoing RDS committee warmly thanks the donors of the Green Templeton Annual Fund and the supportive staff members whose contributions have been deeply appreciated throughout the year, and wishes all the best to new RDS president Felix Radtke and his committee for another successful year in 2025-26!
