OLD PERSEANS
OP News Tom Roper (1973) was awarded the Cyril Cuthbert Barnard Prize by the Health Libraries Group Committee in recognition of outstanding services to medical librarianship.
John Steele (1982) was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s 2021 Birthday Honours for his services to sport. Starting his illustrious career as a professional rugby player, John moved into coaching Northampton Saints and held various leadership roles including Chief Executive at UK Sport, and Chair of the English Institute of Sport.
We are delighted to report that on 7 September Hannah Parker (2010) successfully swam across the English Channel to raise money for the Karuna Trust in memory of Rajen Mahendra (2010), Prostate Cancer UK and MS Society. Hannah raised over £18,000 for the three causes. She spent over 14 hours in the water and became the 2,631st person to complete a solo swim of the Channel. The journey of a lifetime, and a fantastic achievement.
Sofia Baldelli (2018) has been appointed as President of Oxford University’s Atalanta Society which promotes and supports women in sport within the university. In her role she has created accessible resources to make it easier to report incidents of sexual harassment within sport and continues to campaign for the “overhaul” of the university’s sexual harassment reporting and welfare system.
Cameron Mackenzie (2020) rowed as one half of a winning boat at the 2021 British Universities & Colleges Sport Regatta. Cameron rowed alongside Matthew Edge for Cambridge, as pair ‘A’ in the Men’s Championship Lightweight Regatta. Junior Rowing News quoted the pair as ‘the pair to beat; rumour has it that they’ve been keeping pace with the heavyweight pairs...’ which they did! 16
