Shaun Lintern is health editor of The Sunday Times. An investigative health journalist for more than a decade, he has helped expose some of the worst scandals in NHS history, including the Shropshire and Telford maternity disaster and poor care at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, and the subsequent public inquiry. He was health correspondent for The Independent and previously bureau chief for the Health Service Journal.

To view Shaun’s contact details and conflict of interest declaration click here.

Shaun was made Chair of the MJA at the 2023 AGM.

Status: Re-elected at the 2026 AGM.

Isla is highly experienced journalist and writer who has covered health for national newspapers and magazines for over fifteen years, building up extensive contacts with clinicians, charities, patient groups, government bodies, and across the health media. Isla is also currently working with health charities and clinicians to create informative and engaging patient information on often complex medical conditions, something she finds extremely rewarding.

Isla has been a national newspaper journalist since the early nineties, writing on subjects ranging from overseas property to celebrities, and she hugely enjoyed a three-year stint in Australia helping to launch a women’s news magazine for ACP. She is the author of the YA fiction series The Cate Carlisle Files (Piccadilly Press) and takes her ‘Thriller Writing Workshop for Young Adults’ into schools and libraries across the UK. She is currently writing her fourth novel, a fictionalisation of real-life Victorian murder.

Away from writing, Isla is a school governor at Northampton School for Boys, with responsibilities for student health and welfare.

Isla was voted Vice Chair in April 2025.

Status: Re-elected at the 2026 AGM.

Emma is an award-winning freelance journalist specialising in medicine and health. She did a BSc in Biomedical science before deciding she wanted to write about, but not ‘do’, medical research. After an MA in journalism, she worked at The Lancet Oncology editing scientific reviews and writing news before moving to Pulse, then BBC News online.

Emma has been fully freelance and living in Sheffield for more than a decade, writing for the specialist trade press. She is also an associate lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. More recently, she co-founded Freelancing for Journalists and co-authored her first book – Ultra Women: The trailblazers defying sexism in sport.

Emma was co-opted at the December 2020 MJA EC Meeting.

Status: Re-elected at the 2026 AGM and re-appointed as Vice-Chair in 2026.

Rosalie has a diverse background spanning fashion design, library work, and a Master’s degree in Children’s Book Illustration. She brings a wealth of creativity and a unique perspective to the role of Administrator, using her skills to support the MJA and its members.

Sarah has worked as a freelance book-keeper and accountant to a number of different industries for over thirty years. She is currently acting as Treasurer to a charity researching childhood leukemia and has previously been Treasurer to a number of other charities in the UK. She is also a qualified CELTA teacher.

Status: Re-elected at the 2026 AGM. Re-appointed as Treasurer at in 2026.

Nicola Hill started work on local and national newspapers before moving into broadcasting. She has presented radio and TV programmes for the BBC, independent radio, and for Sky News, where she was health correspondent. She also edited the health pages on Sky News Online. She has been nominated for both a Royal Television Society award and a Sony Award.

Among her scoops: gaining permission from the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia to film in Riyadh, and from Fidel Castro to film in Cuba. Since becoming freelance, Nicola has reported on and spoken at international health conferences, and made health documentaries in the UK and abroad. She acts as a media consultant, hosting interactive webcasts, chairing media advisory boards and medical symposia, and presenting corporate films and podcasts.

Nicola spent 18 months covering the COVID-19 pandemic for the global TV news channel TRT World.

Her website is: www.ncmedia.org.uk.

Status: Re-elected at the 2026 AGM.

John Illman spent eight years as the Guardian‘s health editor and five years as the Daily Mail’s medical correspondent. A former editor of GP newspaper, he is now lecturing, writing a series of books, and has set up a video production company. His publications include The Body Machine with the heart transplant pioneer Christiaan Barnard.

Status: Re-elected at the 2026 AGM.

Lawrence McGinty has reported on health and science for more than three decades. First for New Scientist magazine, then for Channel Four News, and most recently for ITV News. During that time he has covered an extraordinary breadth of stories. He has flown a Harrier jump jet, reported live from the military hospital at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan, and presented a week of reports from Papworth Hospital that persuaded over 100,000 people to sign up as organ donors.  In 2014 he won the Lifetime Achievement award of the Association of British Science Writers. The citation said he had “a profound effect on the scientific community”.

Lawrence interviewed every health minister for two decades. More importantly he has interviewed thousands of patients – some delighted by new developments that have transformed their lives, others blowing the whistle on appalling NHS treatment. He has won awards from BAFTA, the RTS, the ABSW, the Medical Journalists Association and an Emmy. He also won the British Video Industry’s award for the best comedy video (beating Morecambe and Wise!). He has chaired an international conference on drugs for the World Health Organisation and given talks to many professional bodies. But more important to him, he has won the respect of the many doctors, scientists and patients he has met. Lawrence stood down as MJA Chair in 2021.

Status: Re-elected at the 2026 AGM.

Jill was Medical Correspondent for the Daily Mirror for 18 years until being made redundant in September 2003. As a freelance she wrote for various consumer magazines and national newspapers, and was involved in media consultancy work with pharmaceutical companies and medical PRs for around nine years.

Now semi-retired, Jill still does some writing and is a trustee of the Journalists’ Charity.

Status: Re-elected at the 2026 AGM.

Jennifer Richardson is The BMJ’s Features Editor, responsible for commissioning, editing and writing in-depth journalistic stories with a UK focus. She joined the Journal in 2017.

Since 2016, Jennifer has also been a Lecturer in Journalism at Kingston University, where she has specialised in teaching digital journalism.

Previously, Jennifer was Editor of C+D, a media brand for UK community pharmacists, responsible for leading its editorial and production teams across print, online and live events.

Jennifer has a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism from Cardiff University and an MA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

Jennifer was co-opted by the EC in April 2025.

Status: Re-elected at the 2026 AGM.

Jane Symons is a freelance health writer and media consultant and a regular contributor to the Daily Express and Daily Mirror. Jane edited the health pages of The Sun for five years and has written for a broad range of national titles including The Times, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Sunday Express, Women’s Health, and Woman and Home. Jane has written several pregnancy books including How to Have a Baby and Still Live in the Real World, which have been published in the UK, USA, Europe and Russia. She has also edited a volume on Health System Performance Assessment and website material for the World Health Organisation.

As a journalist who also provides media consultancy she offers bespoke advice in effective media messaging and press materials, thought-leadership articles, speech writing, identifying the best story angles, report writing and media training. Jane was also the Public Patient Information lead on the CovidenceUK longitudinal study into all things Covid-related.

Jane stood down as a Vice Chair of the MJA in 2025 after 10 years in that role. At the October 2026 EC meeting, she stood down as MJA web editor.

Status: Re-elected at the 2026 AGM.

Adele is a prolific freelance writer, editor and editorial consultant who works with a diverse range of titles including The BMJ and the Daily Mail. She won Freelancer of the Year at the 2024 MJA Awards, in part for her work on the joint BMJ-Guardian ‘Me-too’ investigation into sexual assaults and incidents within the NHS.

She is concerned about falling freelance fees and the increasingly difficult environment for freelancers and hopes to explore ways in which the MJA can provide more support for freelance members.

Adele was co-opted by the EC in 2025.

Status: Re-elected at the 2026 AGM.

Carolyn was appointed executive editor of The Pharmaceutical Journal in 2023, after four years as the journal’s deputy news editor and investigations editor. She started out as the sole reporter for three B2B healthcare magazines – Nursing in Practice, Management in Practice and Healthcare Leader – in 2016 before joining the news team at GP magazine Pulse. While there, Carolyn honed her skills in investigative journalism, and has subsequently broken several exclusive stories for both Pulse and The Pharmaceutical Journal. Several of her stories have gone on to make national headlines, with Carolyn interviewed twice on LBC for stories relating to medicine shortages. Carolyn was named Pharmacy Writer of the Year at the Avicenna Media Awards in 2023 and was listed as one of MHP’s ’30 to Watch’ in 2020. Carolyn has also been nominated for a British Journalism Award, four MJA Awards and four BSME Talent Awards. She has a BA in Psychology and English from Western University in Canada, a Bachelor of Journalism from University of King’s College in Canada, and an MA in Magazine Journalism from City, University of London.

Status: Re-elected at the 2026 AGM.

Clare is science writer at The i Paper. She was previously a reporter for New Scientist, specialising in medicine and life sciences. She has won awards from the Medical Journalists’ Association and the Guild of Health Writers, and received the 2023 Harding Prize for Trustworthy Communication. She was co-opted by to join the Executive Committee in January and elected at the 2025 AGM.

Status: Re-elected at the 2026 AGM.