Mildmay UK 

I have been a Trustee and Board member of Mildmay UK since 2021. Mildmay’s hospital in East London has a long history of serving people living with HIV and AIDS, rough sleepers, and others with complex physical and psychosocial needs, particularly where neurocognitive problems and safeguarding issues make mainstream pathways difficult to navigate. 

As a Board Member and chair of the Clinical Governance Committee, my role is to ensure that this specialist care remains clinically robust, person-centred, and aligned with modern NHS standards, while retaining Mildmay’s historic commitment to those on the margins of the system.

Mildmay UK in Uganda

Uganda holds a special place in Mildmay’s international story and in my own work. Mildmay Uganda was established in 1998 as the organisation’s first overseas programme, originally to provide comprehensive HIV care at a time when thousands of children were waiting for life-saving antiretroviral treatment. Today, Mildmay Uganda supports a significant proportion of all people on antiretroviral therapy in the country and has grown into a major centre for specialist HIV care, training and health-system support.

As a Mildmay trustee, I have been closely involved in visiting Uganda, listening to local clinicians, programme managers and community volunteers, and reflecting on why locally led care is so effective in this context. My role is to champion partnership rather than paternalism: to ensure that Mildmay UK’s fundraising, clinical expertise and educational programmes genuinely strengthen Ugandan-led services, instead of imposing external agendas. That includes supporting initiatives such as outreach to hard-to-reach populations, telemedicine links that connect remote clinics to specialist advice, and training programmes that equip nurses, midwives and doctors to deliver high-quality HIV and general medical care in resource-limited settings.

Medcare UK and its relationship with Mildmay

Alongside Mildmay responsibilities, I am a trustee of Medcare UK, which delivers health sand rehabilitation services for vulnerable children, supported by the Manchester Airport Group charity (MAG). 

Working with both organisations has resulted in a joint Mildmay International / Medcare UK programme to build four new in-patient health facilities in Uganda. I work with both organisations to integrate Mildmay’s experience in HIV, gender-based violence and health-system strengthening with Medcare’s focus on paediatric and community-based care, so that the resulting facilities are both necessary and sustainable. We want to improve palliative care for people with non-communicable long term conditions in Uganda. 

My role involves scrutinising plans, safeguarding standards and financial stewardship, ensuring that our UK-based support for projects in Uganda is transparent and aligned with Ugandan priorities. I want to communicate the story to UK supporters and NHS colleagues, so that they can see how relatively modest investments in infrastructure and training can transform care for children with disabilities, adolescents and families living with HIV and other life long conditions.

Current Work in Uganda

Mildmay Uganda is an independent organisation providing in- and outpatient Health Care on the outskirts of Kampala combined with community outreach services. Mildmay Uganda runs programmes to:

  • Reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV, in collaboration with government health facilities, 

  • Support children and adolescents through the Universal Fund child-sponsorship programme. 

  • Economically empower vulnerable families. 

Mildmay Uganda is a comprehensive provider of training and education. There  are accredited programmes for Nurses and Midwives and university partners revalidate diploma and degree courses to ensure quality and international recognition. 

Medcare UK has for many years developed paediatric care and primary health services for underserved communities, working closely with Ugandan partners to upgrade facilities, supply equipment and support staff development. It has two facilities in Kamatuuza; the Wellspring Medical centre, a hospital with a recently opened Rehabilitation unit for disabled children, and a home for disabled and disadvantaged children. We also support community based rehabilitation, community outreach and a child sponsorship scheme. 

Ugandan Education Exchange Programme

This new programme will enable clinician placements at Ugandan partner hospitals, giving UK Doctors and clinicians direct experience in low-resource settings while simultaneously strengthening local services. This two-way learning model is an important part of my work: encouraging UK colleagues to see global health not as charity, but as professional collaboration.


Planned future work in Uganda

Looking ahead, a joint Mildmay–Medcare initiative draws on these foundations. This joint programme, which I chair, is to build four new in-patient health facilities and is the central element of this future work. These facilities will be modern centres bringing high-quality, inclusive care closer to underserved communities, rather than concentrating everything in Kampala. They will be designed to integrate:

  • In patient and outpatient palliative care for people with long term non-communicable diseases

  • In-patient and out-patient care for adults and children, especially those with disabilities 

  • Outreach and telemedicine links, allowing remote clinics to access specialist advice and enabling early referral of complex cases.

  • Embedded training functions, so that nurses, midwives, clinical officers and doctors can learn in context and take skills back to their home districts.

From my perspective as a trustee and programme chair, the future in Uganda will depend on three things: 

  • Sustaining and developing Ugandan leadership, 

  • Supporting and maintaining high clinical and ethical standards, 

  • Investing in workforce development. 

The goal is not to create dependency on UK charities, but to help build resilient, locally owned services that can continue improving lives long after individual projects end. The vision for Uganda is ambitious but grounded in the reality of what has already been achieved.