Tackling Knife Crime in southeast London

2026 kicked off with scribing some quite hard-hitting issues, and this was one of them. 

Unfortunately schoolchildren these days need this sort of education, on top of all the other things they're having to deal with (and I'm including social media!)

My favourite workshop was this one, as it was essentially using comic book stories as an educational vehicle, and they've done it really well! More on Penificent here: https://penificent.com/

Street doctors are doing such amazing work to educate young people as well: https://streetdoctors.org/

 

Inclusion London - Live Scribing for Staff Away Day

A fab afternoon working for this wonderful bunch of people. Inclusion London is a charity that supports Deaf and Disabled organisation in London and campaigns for equality for Deaf and Disabled people.

For more information about the work they do please look at their website here: https://www.inclusionlondon.org.uk/about-us/

Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) - UCL Grand Challenges

University College London asked me to scribe at this event. This was a steep learning curve for me, but fascinating. All about using a natural process of rock weathering of basalt, but giving it a nudge to capture a lot more carbon from the atmosphere.

More on enhanced rock weathering is here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65648361

If it works it could really help our warming planet!

Dementia prevention, sharing research for University College London

I had a lovely afternoon scribing at a public engagement event about dementia in London yesterday. The event was run by University College London, and was a sort of crossover between knowledge exchange and public health messaging with several dementia research groups there to share their findings with the public. 

The good news is: research that has been undertaken recently by Professor Gill Livingston has found that dementia is up to 45% preventable if you remove the following 14 risk factors:

Unfortunately, as we heard from participants, as we grow older and become physically infirm or lose sight or hearing this can also lead to social isolation, adding to the potential risk for dementia. Other things were a surprise, eg I wasn’t aware of the impact of air pollution and high LDL cholesterol as risk factors for dementia. (So more walks in the woods and healthy snacks for me then!)

 

Staff Conference Merton Council, London

 It was a pleasure to be asked back to this staff conference for the third year. Lots of changes have happened over the last 2 years, and still more to come...