Sage Friends - our gratitude

A note of thanks

If we have missed you, please forgive us, otherwise the website might never see the light of day! We hope, over time, to thank people in person, here or elsewhere. Any achievement we have is only possible through the many relationships, encounters and experiences that have brought us to where we find ourselves. Sage is rooted in these connections and this page simply tells a part of that unfolding story.

Laura Marshall-Andrews
Laura is an award-winning NHS general practitioner based in Brighton, England. With over two decades of frontline experience, she has pioneered a holistic approach to healthcare, integrating conventional medicine with complementary therapies. Her practice, WellBN, emphasises patient-centred care, addressing both physical and emotional well-being. Laura also spearheaded the integration of HERA – the social prescribing creative arts and wellbeing programme – into her Brighton practice. We are deeply grateful to Laura for her inspiration, generosity, and time spent thinking and working with us in the early seeding of Sage Practices. Her encouragement and support have been invaluable, and we warmly recommend her memoir What Seems To Be The Problem?, in which she shares transformative patient stories that highlight the power of compassion and innovation in medicine.

The Hive: Flourishing in Medicine WhatsApp group
We are deeply grateful to The Hive: a place of sanctuary, courage and curiosity. Born from the North East London Deep End Health Equity group, it has grown to include people from across the country. You are the ones willing to step off the concrete road laid out for us and explore wider terrain, asking what creating and sustaining good health truly means. There are too many to name, but we hope to share more of your work as Sage grows, showing how careful and kind care can be put into action.

The Journal of Holistic Healthcare
The Journal of Holistic Healthcare is published three times a year by the British Association for Holistic Medicine and Healthcare (BHMA). It provides a space for narrative, opinion, pilot research, and case studies that explore whole person care and its implications for practice. Many of its issues have been generously made open access, allowing practitioners, students, and the wider public to benefit from its insights without barriers. We are most grateful to David Peters, the editorial team and contributors who continue to hold space for these conversations, and for their commitment to keeping alive the values of holistic, compassionate and person-centred care.

Phoenix Court Works Foundation
Phoenix Court Works exists to support Phoenix Court’s mission to be a good, long-term neighbour in Somers Town, Camden: helping people realise their full potential. Their focus is on investing not just in economic innovation but in social value, distributing its support equitably across the local community.
We are grateful for the financial support of Phoenix Court Works Foundation, which has enabled us to take important first steps in developing Sage Practices. Without their commitment to relational, grounded community support, working with local groups, nurturing connections, these first steps would have been much harder to take.

Camden ANCHOR
Camden ANCHOR is a charity linked to The Camden Health Partners GP Federation, working to improve health and well-being in Camden by bringing people together, building confidence and creating opportunities for positive change. We are deeply grateful to Camden ANCHOR for holding and supporting our endeavours firstly at The Listening Space offering governance, encouragement and advice while giving us the freedom to experiment. Your steady presence and belief in community have been vital in helping the River of Hope and Sage Practices take root.

Jane Riddiford and Global Generation
Global Generation is an educational charity that creates opportunities for young people to connect with nature, the wider community, and their own potential. Through gardens, story, and shared projects, they foster a sense of belonging and responsibility for the living world. Co-founded by Jane Riddiford, the charity has become known for its creative and relational approach to environmental and social change.
We are deeply grateful to Jane for her wisdom, encouragement and support: for walking alongside us in our storywalks that grew into the River of Hope, for helping us find language for what we were doing by introducing us to the concepts of wayfinding and action research and for the steady inspiration of her work with Global Generation. Our thanks also extend to the whole Global Generation team, whose creativity, generosity and care continue to nurture people and places into flourishing.

Paquita de Zulueta
Paquita leads the Human Values in Healthcare Forum with passion and commitment. We are deeply grateful for her solidarity, support, friendship and wisdom: for keeping compassion, integrity, justice and holistic care alive in conversations and in practice.

Nicola Gill
Nicola created The Art of Medicine website features in the Sage Gallery, a beautiful resource bringing together art, story and care. We are grateful for the generosity of her work, and for her friendship, belief and support of The Cards.

Eugenia Lee
Eugenia is a GP Partner in Thamesmead, South East London, and a trainer in her practice as well as Training Programme Director for Greenwich VTS. She is also clinical lead for Greenwich Training Hub and Population Health in Greenwich, and has contributed at both regional and national levels, including with NICE. She is passionate about supporting the NHS workforce at all stages of their careers. Outside her professional role, she is an enthusiastic theatre-goer, a lover of great literature, and a world traveller. We are deeply grateful for Eugenia’s generosity in sharing her Arts and Health Interface Padlet, which is both a resource and an invitation to see medicine and the arts as partners in understanding what it means to be human

The Caversham Group Practice and the Simmons House Team
We want to acknowledge the workplaces and communities that have supported us for many years: our work families, holding us together in mutual support through both good times and challenges. From them we have learnt so much about care, trust and the daily work of supporting one another. We are deeply grateful to all those who placed their trust in us, knowing how difficult that can be. The work of Sage grows from these experiences, with the hope that it may give back: helping to sustain the ongoing endeavour of the NHS as part of our shared social contract to care for each other in times of need.

Iona Heath
Iona Heath, writer, thinker and former President of the Royal College of General Practitioners, has done so much to articulate the risks of too much medicine when it comes at the expense of the wider web of care. We are deeply grateful for her wisdom, mentorship and friendship, and for the clarity and courage she brings to keeping care grounded in what truly matters.

Point of Care Foundation
The Point of Care Foundation works to humanise healthcare by supporting compassionate care, reflective practice and compassionate leadership, including through the development of Schwartz Rounds in the UK. We are grateful for their work and especially to Rebecca Myers, Ruth Ball, Aggie Rice and Jackie Tumulty for their compassionate leadership, personal support, friendship and solidarity along the way.

Michael Dixon
Michael Dixon, Co-Chair of the College of Medicine, has long pushed the boundaries of how we think about health and care. It was Michael’s prompting and encouragement that first sowed the seeds of what has grown into Sage Practices. We are grateful for his vision and support, and hope that our work honours something of that vision and contributes positively to shaping primary care for the future.

This list is, and always will be, incomplete. Sage has grown in a wide and interwoven web of relationships, influences and encounters — many of which we may not even fully recognise ourselves. We apologise to those not named here, and offer this page as a gesture of gratitude rather than a definitive record. Our hope is that it points to a way of being in which none of us stand alone, but are part of a Larger Us — from which new patterns of care and possibility can emerge.