Held on Friday, 03 Oct 2025 at 6:30pm

Venue: Apothecaries' Hall, Black Friar's Lane, London EC4V 6EJ

Life & Death Decisions in Places Where Google Cannot Find (The Audrey Few Lecture)

To be given by Prof Mark Hannaford

Mark Hannaford is an expedition leader, pioneer, and founder of World Extreme Medicine and co-Founder of The WEM Fund, the world’s foremost platform for training clinicians to deliver care in the most remote and unpredictable environments. With decades of operational experience spanning deserts, jungles, mountains, polar regions, oceans, and conflict zones, he has helped shape a new medical sub-discipline: Extreme Medicine.

​His work has consistently sought to break down silos rather than create new ones, drawing together physicians, surgeons, nurses, paramedics, humanitarians, military medics, and explorers into a collaborative global community. His partnerships extend to the frontiers of space, working alongside NASA astronauts and space medicine specialists to translate lessons from orbit into practice on Earth.

At the heart of this mission is the belief that medicine cannot remain confined within clinic or hospital walls. In a world challenged by conflict, climate change, displacement, and disaster, healthcare must be mobile, adaptable, and democratic delivered where it is needed most, rather than where it is most convenient to provide. Extreme Medicine embodies this principle, equipping clinicians to serve patients in the harshest conditions and, in turn, strengthening the very foundations of mainstream healthcare.

In this year’s Audrey Few Lecture at Apothecaries’ Hall, he will reflect on the realities of making life-and-death decisions in places far beyond the reach of conventional healthcare systems. He will demonstrate how the lessons learned in extreme environments, from frontline trauma in Ukraine to high-altitude rescues to highlight a different way of doing....

Professor Mark Hannaford FEWM FRGS FRCSEd DSc (hc) is an expedition leader, aquanaut, and founder of World Extreme Medicine and the MSc in Extreme Medicine at the University of Exeter, the world’s first postgraduate programme of its kind. Over four decades of expeditions, he has worked across deserts, jungles, mountains, oceans, polar regions, and conflict zones, most recently delivering trauma supplies and medical teams to Ukraine.

Elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, awarded a Doctor of Science honoris causa by the University of Exeter, and recipient of the Explorers Club EC50 Award celebrating 50 global visionaries changing the world. His deep involvement in humanitarian efforts has also helped raise over £106 million for charities and crisis response worldwide. His collaborations with NASA astronauts, war surgeons, humanitarian nurses, expedition leaders and international medical specialists continue to shape Extreme Medicine as a vital, boundary-crossing discipline.

As co-founder of the WEMFund with Advanced Paramedic Luca Alfatti MSc, WEMFund's work has been highlighted in the UK Parliament he is presently focused on translating lessons from the Ukraine conflict back to the UK medical community through public engagement and focused learning initiatives. Recognised by the Government of the United Arab Emirates, he was awarded a Golden Visa under their Exceptional Talent programme.