Laureation address: Professor Dame Sally C Davies
Honorary Degree of Doctor of Medicine
Laureation by Professor David Crossman, School of Medicine
Tuesday 3 December 2019
Vice-Chancellor, it is my privilege to present for the degree of Doctor of Medicine, honoris causa, Professor Dame Sally Davies.
“One of the advantages of being as senior as I am, and having an upfront personality, is that I call it out, and I do it all the time.” replied Professor Sally Davies in response to a question from a hapless interviewer. So much of her success, and the qualities that have allowed her to achieve this, are described in this simple statement of self-description.
Throughout her life, Sally Davies has broken the mould of systems in medicine, Government in medicine and the role of women in leadership. She is associated with major shifts in policy, nudges to members of the public about their health, and leading the responses to major health challenges. Smoking, sugar consumption, obesity, alcohol, antimicrobial resistance, genomics in healthcare systems, responding to bird ‘flu and Ebola, extracting research funding in the NHS and the establishment of the NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) and promoting inclusion, particularly of women in medicine and research through championing the requirement of Athena SWAN silver award status to be able to receive major NIHR infrastructure awards, are amongst the issues that Sally Davies has taken on and, in so doing, made a difference.
Out of this list of extraordinary achievements, and drive for change, it is perhaps the field of antimicrobial drug resistance (AMR), which has obtained the highest level of traction, and in which she has had so much impact. AMR, as an area of concern, is one which she has highlighted as an existentialist challenge to mankind. She has spoken on AMR at numerous events including the World Health Assembly, the G8 science ministers’ meeting, the Global Health Security Initiative, and the UN General Assembly. She was for three years the chair of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on AMR. She served as a member of the WHO Executive Board from 2014 to 2016 and has been appointed a Co-convener of the UN Interagency Coordination Group on AMR. She remains the UK Government’s Special Envoy on AMR.
Sally Davies was born to academic parents, one a scientist and the other a theologian. By her own public admission, she failed the 11-plus exam. She did not excel at her school in Birmingham but loved music and was an accomplished viola player in the Midland Youth Orchestra. She tells me that she learnt from playing this extraordinary instrument how to support others in their collective ambition. She liked science and people and so she chose to undertake studies in medicine at the University of Manchester, where she says she ‘made a lot of noise’ and indeed was encouraged to undertake a long elective overseas to ‘quieten down’. After qualifying and house jobs and a spell as a diplomat’s wife, she returned to train in haematology and became a consultant with a major expertise in sickle cell anaemia and other haemoglobinopathies in the immigrant population of North London. It was working in this subject area that she got to know Sir David Weatherall, who is one of her heroes for his blend of clinical excellence, outstanding research, and support for those training and also succeeding by entering the academic fray from outside of the golden triangle (Liverpool in Sir David’s case).
Her big step into medical leadership was in 2004 when she was appointed Director General for Research and Development at the Department of Health, where she oversaw the creation of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) by successfully extracting research and development cash from hospital chief executives – something that had consistently defeated those who went before her. It is probably for this that the academic medical profession most respects her, and, indeed, is one of her proudest achievements. The formation of NIHR has had a huge impact on medical research in England and other parts of the UK. In 2010 she was appointed Chief Medical Officer in England and held that post until a few weeks ago, recently taking up the post of Master of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge.
When asked by various interviewers what she most desires in life she has variously answered: more hours in the day, an antibiotic that does not acquire resistance and an infinite supply of bubble bath. All of these are, of course, quite impossible and presumably that is why she wants them. ‘The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.’ This is an oft-quoted piece of George Bernard Shaw’s wisdom. Aside from the male gender aspect, Shaw’s insight into the characteristics of humans who create real change has resonance with Sally Davies’ willingness to challenge, where others might have thought this unreasonable.
Sally Davies likes cooking and food, she runs because it is good for her and she loves music. When asked about cooking, she highlights her previous medical experience or more precisely her surgical skills for boning out poultry to create a galantine – clearly the spécialité de la maison Davies. She has links and fondness for the University of St Andrews. Her father, before her, was a recipient of an honorary degree, in Theology in his case. Her daughter, Isa, is a graduate of the School of Medicine. More contemporaneously she now adjudicates the Trinity College Great Court Run, which was the basis of the film Chariots of Fire and famously the opening sequence was filmed on the West Sands.
These achievements – not bad for a viola playing, 11-plus failure – have resulted in Sally Davies receiving many awards for her contributions to medicine and humanity. These include being a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2002), a Fellow of the Royal Society (2014), a member of the National Academy of Medicine, USA (2015) and a Dame of the British Empire (2009). Today, it is a great privilege for the University of St Andrews to add to these awards.
Vice-Chancellor, in recognition of her major contribution to medicine and humanity, I invite you to confer the degree of Doctor of Medicine, honoris causa, on Professor Dame Sally Davies.
Sally Davies's response
So last time I did Radio 4, one of the men started with: “well, lots of people think you’re the chief nanny of the nation”. So why would you listen to the chief nanny? Am I going to tell you off too? I think if you were a medical audience, I wouldn’t tell you off but I would talk to you as I talk to my own students and my own family, about why we do things. When I thought about the fact that you aren’t a medical audience, I thought that we should do the same.
So let me start by thanking the Vice-Chancellor and the senate, or this very great honour, and I am a bit overwhelmed. It’s a great thing to be part of St Andrews. Thank you. I also want to extend my congratulations to all of you who have graduated today, and we, I think, send our shared thanks to those who supported us. For me, it’s obvious, it’s my parents, but actually, would I be here without my husband and my children’s support and belief in me? If you’d had the start I’d had you needed all of that. I’ve actually had lots of fun en route, and I hope you do too. Because, fun, helps make things happen.
So you’re standing on the threshold of life - I think, at my age. I ask you to think about what you stand for. I ask you to stand for your values. One of the many things about your generation is that you’re finding values that I think we lost a little in much of the world, over the years before the crash. I ask you to stand up for the weak, because they can’t do it. To stand together, because we are stronger together. If I think about patients, which is one of my reference points they get the best care when we pull together. If I think about families, those that are broken have more difficulty. We are stronger together.
I’m going to surprise you because I ask you to stand for politics. We’ve got a broken system. Why don’t you make this - our world - less vicious? Why don’t you change it though your values? Stand for truth. And also, particularly I’ll say to the women, stand tall. I have had the imposter syndrome for much of my life. I still occasionally feel it (I get over it by overwork as you gather). But stand tall. ‘Fake it until you make it’ is the expression.
So, if you stand for all of those and much more, you will be our successful future. You are our future, the young - whether in this country, or across the world. How wonderful that you’ve studied together, you’ve made friendships. You know what the global world is about. Bring those values to it, because I would say that our lives are in your hands, and your generation. I’ve done my best, your teachers have done their best. Now, you stand tall and do your best, and good luck. Thank you.