SIR WALTER MERCER MEDAL FOR ASHLEY BROWN

In March 2021, Ashley Brown (OW 2006) was awarded the Walter Mercer Medal, for gaining the highest mark out of all Orthopaedic trainees across the UK, in the Trauma and Orthopaedic Fellowship exam in 2020.

After leaving WGS, Ashley completed his Medical degree at the University of Glasgow, graduating with Honours, and has since specialised in Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgery, where he has been trained under The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Centre of excellence.

The exam is in two parts, covers the whole trauma and orthopaedic curriculum and is taken by senior registrars prior to becoming a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon. The Sir Walter Mercer Medal is the highest honour that can be won for the gruelling exams.

Ashley said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be the latest Oswestry/Stoke trainee to win the FRCS Orth medal.

I consider myself to be extremely privileged to be on the Oswestry/Stoke training rotation with RJAH at its centre."

Ashley’s hard work has also earned him a place on the Lower Limb Arthroplasty Fellowship Programme at the worldrenowned Holland Orthopaedic Centre in Toronto. After completing his training

August, Ashley and his family (including wife Sally Costin-Brown, OW 2006) moved to Canada for 12 months.

When Ashley and family return to the UK next year, he will be applying for consulting posts.

Ellie Makes Her Debut

During her time at WGS, Ellie Denton (OW 2019) was a regular participant in school plays and developed a passion for the arts. On leaving school, Ellie went on to study Fine Art at Newcastle University. “I knew I wanted to continue acting”, Ellie explains, “so it was a nobrainer for me to join the Newcastle University Theatre Society.” In March 2020, after many hours and late nights rehearsing, their production of My Mother Said I Never Should was devastatingly cut short by COVID.

Unable to perform to a live audience for the foreseeable future, the Theatre Society decided to do something different. To raise money for arts charity Acting for Others, they decided to film The Importance of Being Ernest, directed by Adam Kineen, at The Sunderland Empire for audiences to stream from 2nd to 23rd July. The charity provides emotional and financial support to theatre workers in their time of need, a cause close to the hearts of Ellie and the rest of the theatre community.

Ellie was awarded the role of Miss Prism, 'a woman with a history of faults that altogether round her into the most cultivated of ladies' and began rehearsing over Zoom. The project took 10 months in total including filming, editing and promoting. Ellie noted that the rehearsal process “was completely unlike anything I have ever experienced before”, with the director using digitally drawn shapes to demonstrate blocking and staging. Three original scenes written by the director emphasise the impact and importance of art in Wilde’s life. Appropriately for the current situation, the play’s message is that 'saving them would be, and always should be, non-negotiable'.

Ellie describes the experience of seeing her fellow cast members for the first time in person as a “big turning point” after rehearsing via Zoom for so long.

By wearing masks and having two lateral flow tests a week, the production had zero cases of COVID and filming went ahead over two days in May.

Summing up her experience, Ellie explains: “I did not anticipate how intense the whole process was going to be. But the pay-off was worth it; it looked phenomenal. I feel so lucky to have been in this production and to have lived the play-experience I have missed so sorely. We are all incredibly proud of the outcome and are so grateful we were able to produce something this amazing, whilst simultaneously supporting and raising significant proceeds for Acting for Others, during such a tumultuous time.” We look forward to seeing what Ellie, alongside the Newcastle University Theatre Society, will do next!

Two Wheels For Mark Wheeler

Inspired by former WGS teacher R F Langley, recently retired Mark Wheeler (OW 1977) wrote a piece summarising his life and career:

“Anyone who vaguely remembers Mark Wheeler might have formed the opinion that what that boy needed was a sharp blow to the head. Precisely this was achieved in 1998, when a car ran a red traffic light and knocked Mark from his motorcycle as he rode home from work as an art psychotherapist in a Child & Family Therapy Clinic. After a week in a coma, Mark learned to walk again and become even more talkative than he had been before. Seven years of rehabilitation enabled a phased return to the work he loves, from which he has just retired on 1st September 2021. After various previous careers ranging from cleaning toilets in a factory, through photographing bands in the extended toilet that was CBGB’s, social work and more commercial photography, Mark trained as an art psychotherapist and was the first in this field to work in Sheffield (1991) and Nottinghamshire (1994) NHS Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). After having built the Nottinghamshire service up to six art therapists across CAMHS and four in Adult Mental Health, Mark sustained a severe traumatic brain injury on his way home from work in 1998.

IT’S OFFICIAL!

Mark gradually returned to work in Mansfield CAMHS from January 2000 and has since published articles in books, magazines and journals –alongside being a journal peer reviewer. Mark has been invited to speak at international conferences and is on the Department of Health Clinical Expert Database, so that bang on the head did seem to focus his attention. Mark was even awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2004.

Greg Rollason (OW 2010) has recently become a Level 2A referee, refereeing for National League Premier and Premier League 2 games, alongside acting as a fourth official on EFL Championship, League 1 and League 2 games.

It’s a great achievement that Greg has worked hard for, rising through the ranks from Level 9 to Level 2A - only one level below the National List - watch this space!

Mark has not done too badly despite everything. He will continue publishing, making art and working in private practice, including clinical supervision, and will have art works in exhibitions in the East Midlands soon.

Mark is moving to Scotland to enjoy the contradictory delights of good biking roads and tranquil scenery”.