 
 
 
 
Good afternoon and welcome to our first
virtual Diploma Ceremony in 420 years.
We all find ourselves living and working
in extraordinary circumstances.
The global pandemic has had a huge
impact on all of us,
and has meant that, sadly, travelling and
gathering together
in large numbers is simply not possible
at present.
However this is still a high point when
we'll reflect on all that you have achieved
and celebrate your success. While we may
not be physically together in the building,
we are most definitely with you in
spirit and sharing in your joy.
I'm speaking to you from the College Hall, a setting for many of our important
events and meetings.
Here you can see the portrait of our
founder Mr Peter Lowe who received a royal charter from King James VI
of Scotland and I of England to
establish a faculty of physicians and surgeons,
to set standards for education and
training,
to ensure the highest quality of care
for patients.
That was our core purpose in 1599
and while the last 400 years have seen
incredible advances, it remains our core purpose to this day.
Here you can see our motto: CONJURAT AMICE
NON VIVERE SED VALERE VITA. I'm going to concentrate on the first two words
CONJURAT AMICE which means together in friendship.
You are now a member of a global
community of over 15,000 members
in more than 90 countries. And what a power of good that community can be.
Through lifelong education learning and support,
your college can help you to deliver the
very best care for patients.
Today we'll be admitting a large number
of Fellows and Members from all over the
world
and honouring four Honorary Fellows for
their enormous contributions to healthcare.
Professor Carrie MacEwen, immediate past
President of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges of the UK,
Professor Mary Horgan, President of the
Royal College of Physicians of Ireland,
Professor Hithandura Janaka De Silva
immediate past Dean of the Postgraduate
Institute of Medicine in Sri Lanka, and Professor Philip Helliwell,
Professor of Clinical Rheumatology in Leeds.
Usually our Honorary Fellows would sign
the Honorary Fellows book.
The current one dates back to the 1890's.
Despite our long history, our first
female Fellow in the College
was admitted as recently as 1912
and was a Doctor Yamini Sen, a surgeon
from Bengal, who was an advocate for improving access
to healthcare for female patients and improving the
working conditions of female doctors.
I hope she would feel proud that our
agenda to make the College more
inclusive,
is following a path on which she was a
trailblazer.
Together is an important word.  Now come
back to our motto -
CONJURAT AMICE - Together in Friendship.
You may be joining this ceremony from a
few miles or a few thousand miles away, and yet in
this moment we are together. This is a day of
celebration not just for you
but for the families and partners who've
supported you, made sacrifices for you and helped you
to achieve your goals.
You're together with your families today
and it's very important that we
acknowledge
all that they have done and will
continue to do to support you.
I hope that you enjoy this event and
feel
in the virtual world the strong sense of
friendship
and fellowship which defines us as a
College.
Hello,  I'm Adrian Stanley, Vice President
Medical of the College.
and I'm delighted to introduce Josh
Littlejohn and Alice Thompson for the
President's Medal.
Josh and Alice co-founded Social Bite
in 2012, as a sandwich shop on Rose Street
Edinburgh, as a social business
giving away any profit. They offered free
food and hot drinks to the homeless, then
employed homeless individuals as staff.
They had been inspired by economist and
Nobel Prize winner
Professor Muhammad Yunus,
whom they visited in Bangladesh to
discuss the social business model that
he champions.
That is a business designed to address a
social problem,
rather than a traditional purpose of
making money.
They now have five Social Bite branches
across Scotland,
including Glasgow and Aberdeen. Also, 30%of their staff were formerly homeless.
They set up the Social Bite Academy to
help employ and support people affected
by homelessness and other vulnerable groups.
The Social Bite Fund was also created to help address homelessness
in Scotland, and they launched the Social
Bite Village, a supported community, for
people affected by homelessness.
They believe everyone should have a safe
place to call home.
Social Bite is now an internationally
recognized brand and they've attracted
support of many high-profile figures,
including Leonardo DiCaprio and George
Clooney. For the Scottish government,
Josh and Alice invested and helped
launch Scotland's Housing First-program
last year.
This gives the vulnerable a home of
their own, together with a support
structure to help them
sustain their tenancy and
reintegrate into society.
They host the World's Big Sleep Out to
raise funds and increase awareness of
homelessness across Scotland
and have funded Heriot-Watt University
to undertake research on this issue,
including funding options to address it,
and these are being used by the Scottish
Government.
In summary the work that Josh and Alice
have done has led to significant and
sustainable improvements for the
homeless
and other vulnerable groups across
Scotland. Their work has raised a profile
of support for these neglected groups in
our society.
I would like to award Josh and Alice the
medal on behalf of the President. Thank you.
Hello this is just a message
from Josh at Social Bite to say thank you
so much to the Royal College of Physicians
and Surgeons of Glasgow
and Professor Jackie Taylor for
this nomination for the President's
Award 2020.
It's a great great honour for Social
Bite to receive this award.
It's been a crazy time for us as I
know it has been for everybody
during this pandemic. We were
in a situation where we had to close all
of our cafes and our restaurant
and our trading business
growing to a standstill and we very
quickly
pivoted the organization and repurposed
that whole infrastructure to start
providing free food
and emergency food packs to homeless
people and other really vulnerable people who
were in hunger. And we just
last week crossed the half a million
food-pack threshold,
and and an award like this really helps
to draw attention and raise awareness of
that really really pressing need in
society, which is all the more
important in this crazy time of the
pandemic. So thank you so much to the
College: It's a real real honor
and and everybody at Social Bite is really
delighted to receive this award. Thank you.
Hello! A big COVID-19 styled hello from me
and just to say an enormous thank you
for this absolute honour of being given the
President's Medal.
I can't believe the recognition
that we've been getting the last
little while and this is the kind of
thing that really helps to elevate our
work. You know building these networks
and working with other communities such
as yourselves is really the way that we're going to
work together to end homelessness in
Scotland.
Spreading our message and making sure
that as many people and communities hear
about this work as possible.
So thank you so much from the bottom
of my heart for recognizing our work
and for helping to elevate and spread
our message to your community. Thank you.
Hello, I am Dr Rodrick Neilson
and I am the Registrar here at the Royal
College of Physicians and Surgeons
of Glasgow. Today I have the pleasure of
welcoming our many Diplomates to
Membership
and Fellowship of the College. I also
have the privilege of introducing
three of today's four Honorary Fellows,
who are each being conferred with an
Honorary Fellowship in Medicine. I am
delighted to introduce Professor Hithandura Janaka De Silva
for the award of Honorary Fellowship.
Professor De Silva is an eminent
physician and Director of the
Postgraduate Institute of Medicine
which oversees all postgraduate training
in Sri Lanka.
He holds a number of editorships
including section editor of the Journal
of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, the Ceylon Medical Journal
and the online appendix of Kumar and Clark's Clinical Medicine.
He is a prolific author with over 190
publications,
60 case reports and 13 book chapters
to date.
President, Fellows
and Members of the College. I strongly
believe
that our first duty in postgraduate
medical training
is to strive for the highest possible
standards both academic
and human. A uniformity in standards is
possible only through
international collaborations. I was
therefore delighted
when the Postgraduate Institute of
Medicine in Colombo
forged a formal academic partnership
with the Royal College of Physicians and
Surgeons of Glasgow.
I was, however, pleasantly surprised
that the college thought me worthy of
being awarded an
Honorary Fellowship which I am very
privileged
and honoured to accept.
Professor Mary Horgan is the President of the Royal College
of Physicians of Ireland
and Professor at the University College
of Cork in Ireland.
She has made enormous contributions to
medical education and training.
These include restructuring the
undergraduate curriculum at UCC
and then as Associate Dean for Basic
Specialty Training,
she reformed and restructured a new
curriculum for all trainees in internal
medicine,
developing the e-portfolio and process
of annual assessment.
Her experience spans the continuum of
medical training at a strategic level
with implementation, assessment and
standardisation of education and
training in Ireland. it is a privilege to present
Professor Mary Horgan for Honorary
Fellowship of the Royal College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.
Hello, I'm Professor Mary Horgan and I'm
President of the Royal College of
Physicians of Ireland.
I'm absolutely delighted to be awarded
the Honorary Fellowship
of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.
As you will all know, Ireland and
Scotland have a very close relationship.
Many of us are Gaelic and even some of us speak Gaelic, so it's
particularly important that our strong ties
from the all-island college within Ireland and the Glasgow college
remain very strong. We're in a particularly
challenging time for our countries,
and clinical and public health
leadership are absolutely essential
in getting us through this. We learn not
only from our experience within our own
countries but also
of the experience of what's happening in
other countries
and I believe this is essential in suppressing
the virus and really get getting us on
the path to recovery.
I look forward to making the
journey to Glasgow. I've been there
several times. It was one of the childhood destinations
of my parents when they took us
camping.
So I have very very fond memories not only of my
later time in life but also of my
youth. So again I'm most grateful
to Professor Jackie Taylor, the Council,
the Fellows and all the Members of the
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in awarding me this. Thank you.
I am honoured to present Professor Carrie MacEwen for Honorary Fellowship.
Professor MacEwen has just finished her
term as chair of the Academy of Medical
Royal Colleges
and is immediate past President of the
Royal College of Ophthalmologists.
In addition to her work as a consultant
ophthalmologist at Ninewells Hospital
in Dundee, Professor MacEwen is also the Associate
Postgraduate Dean for the East Region in
Scotland for less than full-time training.
She is Ophthalmology Specialty Advisor to
the Chief Medical Officer and Government in Scotland and
Clinical Leader of the NHS improvement England - Getting It Right First Time
ophthalmology work stream.
Professor MacEwen is a leading member of the medical
profession in Scotland and the United
Kingdom.
This is an extraordinary and happy day
for me.
Being elected an Honorary Fellow of the
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons
of Glasgow is, as the name suggests, a true honour for
which I would like to thank the College most
sincerely. Being born and brought up in Glasgow
makes it even more personally relevant
and gratifying.
Today, however, is really about
celebrating the success
and sharing the joy of everyone being
admitted to college as part of this
ceremony. Recognizing your hard work and
the sacrifices made by you,
and your families, to reach this
milestone and a milestone it is. Taking you to the
next stage of your career.
Medicine is, and always has been, a
stimulating and rewarding profession. I have enjoyed
the privilege of being a doctor from the day
I graduated. It is the best job in the world.
In offering my congratulations to you,
I hope that, like me, this will be the
start of a strong relationship with the
college for you.
I now have the pleasure of introducing
our many diplomats for Membership and
Fellowship of the College.
We will also hear from our Vice Presidents
and faculty Deans and Vice Deans
as they welcome you to our College Community.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hello. Hany Eteiba is my name. I'm Vice
President (Medical) of this College
on this very special day and momentous
occasion
I would like to welcome you as a member
and fellow physician
to the wider community of our Royal
College
of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. I
trust this relationship will remain a
long-time commitment and partnership.
Enjoy the day and I very much look
forward to welcome you in the College
and interacting with you and your families
in due course.
The current coat of arms was approved by
college council in 1892
in the top right and bottom left
quarters you can see the symbols for
physicians and surgeons: 
the poppy and the lancet. The Staff of
Asclepius
a Greek god of healing and medicine is
in the centre.
the Royal Arms of Scotland can be seen
in the top right.
This shows the connection to the royal
foundation of the college by James VI
of Scotland. In the bottom left is the
Shield of Arms of the City of Glasgow,
included to show the importance of the
college's position in the local
community. There are two goddesses on the
crest. 
on the left is Hygieia, the Greek goddess
of health, and on the right, 
Minerva, the Roman
goddess of science and art. 
These two goddesses represent the
scientific, 
and medical and surgical characteristics
of the College.
The lamp in front of the open book which
can be seen above the central shield
represents enlightenment and continued
learning. 
Also included in the crest is the
college motto
Conjurat amice. Non vivere sed valere vita.
At the top, Conjurat amice: together in
friendship.
This represents the physicians and
surgeons working together.
At the bottom: non vivere sed valere
vita. This loosely translates to: "not just to
live life,
but to have a healthy life"
i am Alison Lannigan, the Vice President
for Surgical Exams
at the Royal College of Physicians and
Surgeons of Glasgow, and I'm delighted to
be introducing this next award
for Excellence in General Surgery. The
award is named for professor Graham
Teasdale, our
former College President from 2003 to
2006.
Graham came to Glasgow to teach anatomy early in his surgical training,
in the year that i was born, so
definitely not yesterday,
And he never left us. Through
neurosurgical training in Glasgow he was
ultimately to lead a world-renowned
neurosurgical research team
at the University of Glasgow and at the
institute of neurological sciences at
the Southern General Hospital. 
He was President of the Society of
British Neurological Surgeons, 
Chairman of Senate of Surgery of Great
Britain and Ireland,
President of the International
Neurotrauma Society,
and was ultimately knighted by Her
Majesty the Queen in 2006 for services
to neurosurgery
and victims of head injuries. Graham and
his fellow professor of neurosurgery
Bryan Jennett
developed one of the most widely used
scoring systems in medicine,
used in every part of the world, and
recognised as a common language
to measure the conscious state of a
patient. We all know it as the Glasgow
Coma Scale.
The GCS is used across all disciplines, 
is present in the syllabus for ATLS and
General Surgery,
and is used every day in emergency general
surgical receiving. 
the Teasdale medal is awarded for the
highest score
in section 2 of the General Surgery
Intercollegiate Board Exam
by a Glasgow candidate. This exam
is the final hurdle in the long and
complex path of general surgical
training
and taken at a time when family
responsibilities,
life challenges and personal ambitions
all compete.
Our college wants to acknowledge the
dedication and commitment
of our excellent trainees at this stage
in their lives.
I had the pleasure of awarding the
recipient of this inaugural medal
her Glasgow Fellowship last year in
person at her admission ceremony, 
and would like to invite Professor
Teasdale
to present her award. I felt surprised,
and very honoured when I learned that
the College had decided to institute
this award
in my name. It's a great pleasure
and privilege to be able to present it in person to Laura Arthur. Laura:
in my experience the stature of an award
owes much more to the future
achievements
of those who receive it than the past of
those giving it.
You've made a tremendous start with your
great success in the Fellowship
Examination
and I'm sure your career will go from
strength to strength in the future.
My very best wishes. Thank you to Mrs
Lannigan and thank you to Professor Sir Graham
Teasdale.
I'm delighted to accept this medal for
the FRCS from the Royal College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.
The exam was really pretty tough, so it's
really lovely to have my
endeavours acknowledged in this way. I
need to thank my husband Ewan
for looking after me throughout that
process, and I'd also like to pay tribute
to my friend, 
James Nicholson who should have been
sitting the exam with me that day in
Preston
Thank you.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I am delighted to have so many surgical
colleagues to welcome to Membership and
Fellowship of the College here in
Glasgow
I look forward to meeting you and
learning together in the future.
The college was founded as a unique
medical body
bringing together physicians and
surgeons for the first time
to improve standards of health care.
This heritage lives on. We are the only
multidisciplinary Medical Royal College
in the United Kingdom.
The founding members of the College are
Maister Peter Lowe,
who was a surgeon. Robert Hamilton, who
was a Physician
and William Spang, who was an apothecary.
The founders were provided with a Royal
Charter from King James VI
of Scotland in 1599, setting out the
powers and responsibilities of the new
incorporation.
Some of these responsibilities included
examining anyone who wanted to practice
surgery,
and if found worthy, authorising them
to practice.
Attending to patients who were hurt
murdered or poisoned. 
Making statutes for the practice of
surgery for the common good of the
people.
Checking the qualifications and
testimonials of physicians before they
can practice medicine,
and supervising and controlling the sale
of drugs in the city. The Charter still
relates very strongly to what the
college does today.
It set up a unique medical body bringing
together physicians and surgeons for the
first time,
while covering pharmacy, medical
jurisprudence
and, of course, our charitable foundations.
Today the college has five disciplines:
Medicine, Surgery, Dental Surgery
Travel Medicine, and Podiatric Medicine.
The College's enduring purpose is to
inspire,
support and nurture its members to
enable them to deliver the highest
possible standards of care
for their patients.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hi there, I'd just like to welcome all my
Dental Colleagues and indeed their
family and indeed
colleagues to our virtual
admission ceremony here in Glasgow today. It's a delight
to be welcoming you to both membership
and fellowship to our faculty. Let's hope
that you would continue to connect with
the College
as you progress through your career
and, indeed, your vocation.
And it's hoped that some time we may meet up in person in Glasgow
to say hello.
Hi i'm Jason Leitch,  I'm the National
Clinical Director of the Scottish
Government and I
just wanted to say a few words about
what a wonderful day
I hope you have today. I remember sitting
in
that very place but in a slightly
different world,
where people could come together and we
could be
close to one another. But I hope you feel
close to each other and your
achievements,
and what today represents: Representing
joining one of the oldest and
most important medical and surgical
institutions in the world.
And I don't use those words lightly. It's
a fantastic day for you your families
and everything you've managed to achieve
up to this point, and I hope you're
appreciative of it. I hope you take a
small moment of pride
and then move on and use this day and
everything it represents to
enjoy your profession: whether you're in
Dentistry and Travel Medicine,
in Medicine and Surgery, wherever you
find yourself.
And I hope your family also take a
moment to be proud
in their support and their "couldn't have
done it without you"
type mood that they are exactly
appropriate for
today, and they are allowed to have.
Covid has
changed everything in our world and it
has also changed the way we celebrate
and have graduation moments, and I hope
you have time
still to celebrate, even in these
slightly strange times, and I for one,
and Scotland, are very, very proud of each
and every one of you.
 
 
 
 
I'm Jane Chiodini, the Dean of the Faculty
of Travel Medicine
I'd like to extend a very warm welcome
to the fellows, members and associates
being admitted to our faculty within the
College today.
Congratulations, and we look forward to
meeting and engaging with you
in the future.
It is my privilege to present
Professor Philip Helliwell for Honorary
Fellowship
of the Royal College of Physicians and
Surgeons of Glasgow.
Philip Helliwell is professor of
clinical rheumatology
at the University of Leeds, and honorary
consultant rheumatologist
at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals and
Bradford
Teaching Hospitals NHS Trusts.
Professor Helliwell has influenced a
generation of
now clinical academic leaders in
podiatry,
and himself has published over 450
original research papers,
18 books and book chapters, and has
lectured
all over the world, on foot and ankle
diseases in rheumatology,
spondyloarthropathies, and research capacity
building
in allied health professions. It is a
great honour
to welcome him into the faculty.
I'm absolutely delighted and honoured to
accept this fellowship of the Royal
College of Physicians and Surgeons of
Glasgow
and I'm especially pleased to be joining
the Faculty of Podiatric Medicine.
I've worked with podiatrists all my
professional life and I've seen the way
podiatry contributes to improving the
quality of life of many of my
rheumatology patients.
I look forward to supporting the
profession from this privileged position
and in particular with continuing
professional development.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Welcome to the Faculty of Podiatric
Medicine.
We hope that this will be the beginning
of a mutually
beneficial, lifelong partnership,
which will not only support you as an
individual
but will also develop the faculty and
shape
the future of the podiatry profession
about which
we are also passionate. I look forward
to meeting you either virtually as now
or in person and in sharing and
contributing to your learning and
development
in the future. Many congratulations
again.
Madam President, I confirm that this
concludes all the admissions and awards
for September 2020.
The Covid-19 pandemic continues its
inexorable march around the globe.
We're all in it together is a phrase
which may sound familiar,
but within healthcare that has without
doubt been the dominant philosophy.
And staff of all ages from all
disciplines have worked tirelessly
together for the common good.
The response has been outstanding and I
would like to express my gratitude to
everyone,
for showing such professionalism
commitment and selflessness.
We have had a great sense of purpose and
belonging.
We need to hold on to those important
factors as we move forward.
Today is an opportunity not just to
reflect on the past but to look
forward with excitement to the future.
Covid-19 has had a seismic effect on
our world.
It has been a game-changer with
significant effects on physical and
mental health that are yet to play out
But from all crises comes learning;
from adversity comes opportunity.
Our role as healthcare professionals is
to work together
to ensure that we learn as much as we
can, collectively
and individually, from all that we've
experienced.
As Brian Herbert said: "the capacity to
learn is a gift;
the ability to learn is a skill; the
willingness to learn
is a choice." So I encourage you to choose
wisely.
In closing, I would like to personally
congratulate you on your success,
and it is timely perhaps to remind you
of this quote
by Dr Albert Schweitzer: "Success is not
the key to happiness;
happiness is the key to success. If you
love what you are doing,
you will be successful. I hope that you
continue to experience both happiness
and success in your careers, and that
together we can continue in our endeavour
to provide the best possible care for
our patients.
Thank you
 
