As ever, we’ve had a flurry of membership applications around the entry period for the MJA Awards — so please welcome our latest new members.
Layal Liverpool is a science journalist and author focused on covering the latest developments in scientific research and policy, with a particular focus on inequalities in science, health and medicine.
She has a BSc in Immunology and Infection from University College London and a PhD in Infection, Immunology and Translational Medicine from the University of Oxford.
Her work has appeared in outlets including Nature, New Scientist, WIRED and The Guardian, and she has worked as a staff journalist at Nature and New Scientist.
In 2021, Layal was shortlisted for a British Journalism Award based on her health and life sciences reporting for New Scientist. She has also previously been shortlisted for awards by the Medical Journalists’ Association and the Association of British Science Writers. Layal is the author of Systemic: How Racism Is Making Us Ill (June 2024).
Podcast
Órla Ryan is a News Correspondent at TheJournal.ie. Throughout her career, she has written award-winning articles on a wide range of topics. She has written extensively about mental health, rare diseases, women’s health, reproductive rights, female genital mutilation, Covid-19, and scoliosis.
Órla is the creator and presenter of Redacted Lives, a six-part podcast series about mother and baby institutions. When it was released in 2022, it became the number one podcast in Ireland.
It has since won numerous awards, including the prestigious Mary Raftery Prize (2024); Podcast of the Year at the Spider Awards; Silver at the New York Festivals Radio Awards; and a Headline Award for excellence in mental health journalism (all 2023).In 2023, she was chosen as one of the first Irish fellows to take part in the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism. The series (published in 2024) explores how a lack of access to vital services is impacting the lives of young people with psychosis.
Investigative journalism
Maria Delaney is the editor of Noteworthy, an Irish crowdfunded investigative platform. As an investigative journalist, she specialises in social justice, health, data and science.
She is the only two-time recipient of the Journalism Excellence Award from the Irish Red Cross Humanitarian Awards and has also won a number of other prestigious Irish and international awards for her work. Her reporting has sparked policy change and reaction from politicians, including from Ireland’s head of government.
Noteworthy supports independent and impactful public interest journalism, allowing in-depth analysis of underreported issues. It is part of The Journal, Ireland’s largest native online news outlet, and a member of the European Data Journalism Network (EDJNet).
Health policy analysis
Annabelle Collins has been in healthcare journalism for ten years and started her career as a reporter at Chemist & Druggist magazine, working her way up to acting news editor. She has been at HSJ for six years and specialises in the NHS workforce, patient safety and mental health.
Annabelle has also freelanced for other titles including the i newspaper and the BMJ. She runs HSJ’s weekly podcast and often contributes expert health policy analysis on radio and TV.
Women’s health
Christine Ro is a prolific freelance journalist who covers global health and women’s health for a wide range of publications and platforms including BBC Future, Forbes, and the BMJ.
Patient safety
Hugh Wilkins is a clinical scientist (medical physicist) who joins as an associate member. He is a topic leader for the charity Patient Safety Learning. He has worked in Europe, Africa and Asia in healthcare and education, including 30 years in the NHS. Much of his career has involved supporting the safe and effective use of radiation in medicine for diagnosis, treatment and research.
In recent years he has published and presented original work on various aspects of the phenomenon of retaliation by NHS organisations against staff who have raised legitimate concerns about patient safety and related matters.
This interest stems from experience of being unfairly dismissed after making protected disclosures (the validity of which was subsequently corroborated by CQC). He has since met many others who have had similar experiences and believes their voices need to be heard.
You can follow Hugh on X, formerly Twitter, at @Hughhbw
Click here for more information on eligibility and details of how to join the MJA
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