Lady Hale served as President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
Values in medical decision-making
Lady Hale retired as President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the most senior Judge in the United Kingdom, in January 2020. Before becoming a Judge, she had a varied career, as an academic lawyer at the University of Manchester (also qualifying and practising for a while as a barrister in Manchester), as the first woman member of the Law Commission, where she led successful projects in Family Law and Mental Capacity Law.
She was appointed a High Court Judge in 1994, was promoted to the Court of Appeal in 1999, and in 2004 became the first and only woman ‘Law Lord’ in the House of Lords, then the apex court in the United Kingdom. In 2009, the Law Lords were translated into the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. She became its Deputy President in 2013 and its first woman President in 2017. In retirement she has spent her time in good works, events and writing – her memoir, Spiderwoman, A Life, was published in 2021. She holds a number of honorary academic appointments and is Visitor of her alma mater, Girton College, Cambridge.
Professor of Social Psychology at Keele University
Policing Public assemblies in Pandemics:
Crowds, Protests & the Future of Democracy
Clifford Stott is a social psychology professor who has gained an MBE for his world-leading work on crowd psychology. Murray Brunt invited Clifford to deliver the Institute Wade lecture after hearing his fascinating work discussed on ‘The Life Scientific” on the BBC; only then realising that Clifford was round the corner at Keele University.
Clifford studied the London Poll Tax riots and Italian World cup in 1990, riots in the UK in 2011 and in Hong Kong in 2019, using social media and mapping to follow their trajectory.
His work indicated that, rather than riots being driven by hooligans who are predisposed to violence (the ‘mindless mob’ perspective developed at the end of the nineteenth century), they are structured and led by beliefs. The majority of the crowd consider that they are peaceful protestors with a right to express their views. If disorder or confrontation starts, and the police act against it, the crowd experiences what they consider is illegitimate police use of force. This changes their behaviour so that they resist the police. His research has led to changes in policing by some authorities with the aim of reducing violent confrontations.
Clifford has influenced policy on the policing of crowds for big events such as the UEFA European Championships and with police forces as far afield as the USA, Australia and Sweden. More recently has focused on the social and behavioural impact of lockdowns. The Covid 19 pandemic has exposed multiple and complex ‘Grand Challenges’ to human society. As the outbreak developed societies began to recognise that the disease had profound implications, for which the UK was ill prepared. Clifford will tell us about this and more.
We are pleased to confirm the speaker for our 52nd Wade Lecture which will take place on 6th October 2022 at 6.15pm
Professor Clifford Stott MBE
Clifford Stott is Professor of #socialpsychology at Keele University in Staffordshire, Director of its strategic research centre the Keele #Policing Academic Collaboration (KPAC) and Dean for Research in the Faculty of Natural Sciences.
The Professors work revolves around crowd psychology, collective conflict, policing and civil contingency responses in mass emergencies. With an interest in theoretical models of social identity, intergroup interaction, procedural justice, security and police legitimacy.
Reflecting the contributions of work he was awarded the 2014 First Prize for ‘Outstanding Impact on Public Policy’ by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). In 2015 the ESRC also acknowledged his work as one of its top 50 ‘Landmark Research’ achievements of its 50-year history.
During the Covid-19 pandemic Professor Stott was a participant in the U.K. Government’s Scientific Advisory Group in Emergencies (SAGE) Behavioural Science sub-committee (SPI-B) and co-Chair of the SAGE Security and Policing sub-group. In 2021 he was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his contributions to crowd psychology and the Covid-19 response.
We are sure Professor Stotts Lecture will be most informative & interesting.
Contact our team to register your interest ready for when our tickets are released.
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One of the primary objects of the North Staffordshire Medical Institute is to facilitate medical research locally. At the time when I became Chairman of this Institute in 2019 the future had appeared sunny.
Thanks largely to a very generous donation by the Wade Charitable Trust, an extensive renovation to the building (outside and inside) was under way. An excellent A.V. system had already been installed and the building had been renamed “The Wade Conference Centre”. (Anyone who has not visited the place since the refurbishment would be well advised to take a look!)
Meanwhile, our bye-laws, sub-committee structure and membership had been streamlined. The fund-raising strategy had been reformulated to start to grow our reserves, with a view to increasing the number and size of research grants which we are able to give. An initial, fund-raising workshop had been held, and promised well.
Our investments need to contribute to funds and we had appointed new Investment managers (Smith and Williamson)
The Wade lecture in Autumn 2019 (Given by Prof. Turi King) dealt with the discovery of the remains of King Richard 111, and the subsequent investigations. It was well attended, first-class and highly praised.
In the Autumn of that year a custom-made film “Six Decades of Progress” was produced, illustrating the history and functions of the Institute, and was shown at the re-opening of our refurbished building.
The bad news is that, with the outbreak of Covid and the subsequent lockdown, social distancing regulations made for problems. Income from room bookings vanished, while the 2020 Wade Lecture had to be cancelled. Virtual meetings needed to be set-up and, initially these were not always entirely successful.
A further complication occurred when we lost our Broadband for a full three months as the result of damage during demolition work at the Royal Infirmary site. Yet another setback was later provided by the unexpected discovery of water ingress into the roof of the building. This further expense has now been dealt with.
But since then things have improved. Our treasurer was successful in attracting Government and Local authority grants to help with the loss of income.
The value of our investments has also bounced back, while the research committee benefitted by £79,000 from the return of previous, underspent grants.
This money, on top of our normal allocation, has allowed us (in addition to offering the usual number of individual research grants – of up to £20,000) to establish a North Staffordshire Fellowship. The new venture makes available a maximum grant of £60,000, to run for a one-year period, covering salary and project costs. It is intended to help candidates who wish to transfer from post-graduate to academic careers in their early years.
The Wade Lecture (originally planned for Autumn 2020) has been rescheduled for 24th March. The speaker is Graham MacGregor CBE (Cardio-Vascular professor at the Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine) and the title is “The Silent Killers, Salt and Sugar”
There have also been changes to the Staff of the Conference centre. Jacqui Robinson, who has run the office for more years than she would probably like to remember, has retired. Without her dedication there must be doubts whether the place could have survived.
We have now appointed a Chief Operating Officer, Mrs Jeanette Forrester, who is supported by Mrs Jane Hopkinson. Mr Tony Hill, our faithful factotum, continues to look after the building.
It is often claimed that “May you live in interesting times” is an English translation of a traditional Chinese curse, which may initially, be assumed to be a blessing. The Institute has certainly come through an interesting three years, but I believe that – thanks to the work of its officers and committees – it is well placed to face the future.
I wish my successor, Murray Brunt, a successful term of office, and in a less turbulent period.
We are hoping that 2022 will bring with it some form of normality and to celebrate it we are pleased to announce that we will be holding not just One but two Wade Lectures this year.
Our 51st Wade Lecture is set to be a fascinating one being given by Professor Graham Alexander MacGregor CBE
Graham MacGregor is a professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine Queen Mary University of London. Chairman of: “Consensus Action on Salt and Health” (CASH), “World Action on Salt and Health” (WASH) & “Action on Sugar” & “Blood Pressure U.K.”
Professor MacGregor has campaigned over many years, and with worthwhile effect, to reduce the amounts of sugar and salt in processed foods.
Action on Salt “Reducing dietary sodium would save thousands of lives every year”. Graham MacGregor
Action on Sugar “The socially deprived and children are being targeted heavily by very clever people and it’s a disgrace. Fast-food outlets are in socially deprived areas and every-one is selling fat, sugar and death.” Graham MacGregor Put the date in your diary. It should be an interesting and informative evening!
The event will be held on 24th March at 6.15pm. Tickets can be reserved by clicking the link picture below:
After three long years as chairman, Professor Shaughn O’Brien is leaving the North Staffordshire Medical Institute. The obstetrician and gynaecologist takes a moment to reflect on his time at the helm.
“It’s a lovely building for meeting and conferences,” he says. “It’s a good focus for research, a good focus for postgraduate education, it’s a good focus for the community and it’s a good focus for people people putting on meetings an conferences of a high standard.”
During two separate tenures as chairman, Prof. O’Brien has seen the Institute through some challenging times. His first, from 2002 to 2005, included the biggest shake-up in the charity’s history when the hospital trust’s Clinical Education Centre, part of Keele University’s Medical School, was built at the University Hospital of the North Midlands.
The Institute, which had been the area’s main teaching centre for postgraduate medicine, was suddenly left with less purpose and little funding.
“The medical library was moved and all the funding went with it,” says Prof. O’Brien. “In the process of that we had to really set up the Institute as a conference centre. One of the key things we achieved was to make sure we took ownership of the land rather than leasing it from the NHS – and more importantly for conferences, the whole of the parking facilities.
“We also made a lot of changes to the structure of our grants, making them pump-priming for new researchers.”
Appointed vice chairman of the Royal College of Gynaecologists (RCOG) in 2004, Prof. O’Brien stepped back from the Institute to concentrate on the role and his own research. He found himself taking the reins again in 2015, admitting: “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
The chairman went on to face another period of change with his trademark creativity and vision. His legacy at the Institute includes their support for the annual Firelighter Awards, organised by Keele University’s Dr Adam Farmer, which give NHS staff the chance to pitch for medical research grants in a Dragon’s Den-style competition.
He also arranged Institute funding for the ASPIRE programme at Keele University, designed to help medical students engage with academic research. The scheme is led by Professor Divya Chari and Dr Samantha Hider.
Prof. O’Brien is now behind plans to rebrand the Institute as part of a major refurbishment project. The facility will even be given a new name – as yet being kept under wraps.
He says: “We’ve had a significant donation to allow us to redevelop the Institute as North Staffordshire’s high-profile, named conference centre. It should highlight our ability to hold conferences which are not only medical, while retaining the loyalty we’ve built up with our existing customers.”
While he hopes to remain involved with the building work, the father-of-two already knows how he will fill his semi-retirement. It will begin with his valedictory meeting at the RCOG in September.
As well as his continuing research and private practice, he plans to devote the extra hours to his artistic side.
He says: “I’ve already begun to go to sculpture school in London, I’ve got some pieces in the Medical Art Society’s Annual Exhibition at the Royal Society of Medicine in July. I also want to get back to playing the clarinet and saxophone some more.”
Prof. O’Brien has been replaced as chairman by Mr John Muir, the UK’s longest-serving NHS consultant.
North Staffs scientists have used a £10,000 charity grant to help make eye surgery safer for thousands of glaucoma patients.
The research team, based at Keele University’s Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine, were awarded the funding by charity the North Staffordshire Medical Institute.
They have used it to try and improve outcomes of the trabeculectomy surgical procedure, commonly used to treat the eye disease glaucoma.
The condition – which is Britain’s second biggest cause of sight loss – occurs when the optic nerve and retina are damaged, caused by a build-up of fluid that increases pressure inside the eye.
Trabulectomy
A trabeculectomy involves making a small hole in the wall of the eye so that fluid can drain away, relieving the excess pressure.
However up to 30 per cent of the operations fail due to the body’s natural healing processes, which cause the hole to heal up and close again.
The researchers, led by tissue engineer Professor Ying Yang, have been looking for better ways to stop the eye from forming scar tissue and closing the new drainage channels.
She said: “The surgical procedure is the creation of an opening to allow the draining of fluid, but the body is automatically programmed to react if there’s a wound to try and close it.
“If it closes, this kind of surgery will fail. But your body doesn’t realise there is a benefit to this wound.”
Eye Cells
To address the problem, Prof. Yang’s research team have used conjunctival cells to create a mimic of human eye tissue under lab conditions.
They have tested the tissue with various drug doses to find the most reliable way of preventing inflammation and wound healing, without damaging the surrounding cells.
She added: “It’s difficult to work with a human eye and if you use an animal eye they’re not very representative. So we’re able to generate material in the lab that you can use to test whatever you wish – generate artificial wounds, add different growth factors and cytokines or test drug treatments.
“This will help us to predict what will happen in the patient’s eye after glaucoma surgery.”
The team has also been testing a new medical device to treat glaucoma called the XEN gel stent, which involves injecting a tiny gelatin tube into the eye to keep the drainage channel open.
They hope to use the results of their research to attract funding for a larger study.
Prof. Yang said: “The value of the Institute’s grant is that it’s kind of like a seed. We’re not just relying on this funding – through this we’re able to generate the proof of concept to attract more clinicians to participate in our research.”
Research Funding
The original grant was allocated in 2014 as part of the NSMI’s annual awards, which are funded by a combination of public donations, bequests and the income from room hire at the charity’s base on Hartshill Road, Stoke.
Once Britain’s first postgraduate centre, the iconic building is now used as a conference facility.
While the annual funding for 2018 has now all been allocated, researchers will soon be able to apply for the Institute and UHNM’s Firelighter Awards of up to £10,000.
North Staffordshire Medical Institute is set to save lives after raising an incredible £1,999 to buy and install its own public defibrillator.
The emergency equipment has been mounted on the outside wall of the charity’s headquarters on Hartshill Road, Stoke, ready to be used if a member of the public has a cardiac arrest.
Sudden cardiac arrest is one of Britain’s biggest killers, causing the deaths of around 100,000 people every year.
But a victim’s chance of survival soars from just six per cent to 75 per cent if they are treated with a defibrillator within five minutes.
Shaughn O’Brien, chairman of the Institute, said: “I think this is the only defibrillator in the area and it has the potential to be of so much benefit.
“The community has raised the money for this equipment and we are very grateful to them for the success of this appeal.”
The Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) works by delivering a series of electric shocks through a casualty’s chest to help their heart rhythm return to normal.
It first automatically analyses their heart rate to make sure it can only be used when it is needed.
The state-of-the-art machine is one of 1,100 around the country supplied by Stone-based charity AED Donate.
A similar device mounted outside the Signal Radio offices on Stoke Road has been used on average once a month since it was installed.
Josh Cope, Community Fundraiser for AED Donate, said: “The idea that we want to push is that the community itself can be the fourth emergency service.
“We recently spoke to staff members at an air ambulance and they said that to get their helicopter just to take off takes three minutes. In that time you could have someone doing CPR and giving the first shock of a defib.”
Eventually, thegroup aims to make sure no-one in the UK is ever more than two minutes’ brisk walk away from a defibrillator.
Josh added: “We always aim to put a defib in high footfall areas. Believe it or not we’ve actually had a few installed at funeral parlours.
“We’ve got more than a thousand from Wales down to London and they’re all over the place, from high streets to the middle of nowhere.”
The AED has been mounted in vandal-proof, heat-regulated cabinet that opens with a security code available from the West Midlands Ambulance Service.
It is designed to be easy to use by members of the public, even without training, under guidance from 999 operators.
The device was installed after a year-long campaign to raise the funds, led by Institute manager Jacqui Robinson.
It was supported by councillor Sean Pender, Hartshill and Harpfields’ Occasions, the local Residents’ Association and the Rotary Club, as well as residents of the area.
The NSMI itself contributed the final £337.41 to the fundraising total.
North Staffordshire researchers have been awarded £18,450 to develop a new treatment for chemo-resistant cancers.
The group, led by research pharmacologist Dr Alan Richardson, hopes to extend the lives of thousands of patients with breast, ovarian and lung cancers that have stopped responding to chemotherapy drug paclitaxel.
They aim to develop a new drug to stop cancer cells producing a protein that makes them resistant to the therapy.
Dr Richardson and his team will receive the grant from Stoke-on-Trent charity the North Staffordshire Medical Institute.
He said: “Patients who get ovarian cancer respond well to chemo, but they often suffer a relapse and when they come back they become resistant to treatment. At that point the number of options left are limited and there’s not a lot that can be done.
“Our goal is to discover drugs that make cells sensitive again to chemo.”
Ending Drug Resistance
Paclitaxel is normally given to patients through an intravenous drip and works by stopping cancer cells from dividing and growing.
The scientists, based at Keele University’s Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine (ISTM), have found that paclitaxel-resistant cells make too much of a protein called branched chain keto-acid dehydrogenase kinase (BCKDK).
They plan to test a range of chemicals in the lab with samples of pure BCKDK in a bid to block the gene that tells cancer cells to produce it.
Dr Richardson said: “I used to work at the Institute for Cancer Research in London and I started a screen to identify genes that contribute to drug resistance.
“Since then we’ve identified one gene and if we inhibit it, it makes the cancer cells more sensitive to paclitaxel. So we’re going to make drugs to inhibit this gene and hopefully extend people’s lives.”
Dr Richardson’s team will use the money to buy the state-of-the-art equipment they need to set up the initial tests. This will help them to apply for more funding to develop the drug further and eventually test it in patients.
The grant was allocated as part of the NSMI’s annual awards, which are funded by a combination of public donations, bequests and the income from conferences and room hire at the charity’s base on Hartshill Road, Stoke.
Once Britain’s first postgraduate centre, the iconic building is now used as a conference facility.
While the annual funding has now all been allocated, researchers will soon be able to apply for the Institute and UHNM’s Firelighter Awards of up to £10,000.
Written by centr@lAugust 21, 2024 
