By Neil Ghosh (BC10)

I have been involved with the PHG Foundation (www.phgfoundation.org) directly from 2009, and have continued to offer indirect support after becoming a business coach. You may have probably never heard of the PHG Foundation, but it’s a pioneering Cambridge-based multidisciplinary organization whose mission is to enable advances in biomedicine and genomics to be responsibly translated into effective ways to prevent illness and provide healthcare that is accessible to all on the basis of their vulnerabilities and needs.

I’m currently supporting the Foundation’s new initiative to tackle birth defects in low and middle income countries. The initiative is called Born Healthy, and PHG has brought together an impressive community of participants amongst which are Mothercare Foundation, WHO, March of Dimes and Well Being of Women – with the potential to create significant positive change.

Even though as many as 70% of birth defects are preventable or treatable, often through quite simple interventions, over 8 million children annually are born with a birth defect. Born Healthy is a unique and forward thinking initiative based on 15 years of public health service expertise, which offers an extraordinary opportunity to save or improve the lives of 6 million children.

There’s a launch event on the evening of June 28th at The Royal College of Obstetricans and Gynaecologists in London, where companies can find out more and speak to the participating organisations. It would be great to get more corporates involved in Born Healthy and the event could be a good networking opportunity for members of the Meyler Campbell community, so should you have interest, or any contacts who might be interested please let me know (n.ghosh@jbs.cam.ac.uk) and I will put you in touch with the Foundation. The PHG Foundation would welcome your involvement in what is already proving to be a powerful force for change.