Suzanne O'Sullivan

I am a London based neurologist who cares deeply about reducing the stigma of psychosomatic disorders and normalising the reality of the mind-body connection and the havoc it can wreak. I campaign for healthcare improvements and long to see time spent with medical professionals better resourced to improve diagnosis and patient satisfaction. Technology is great - but people make people feel better.

I was born in Dublin but am now London based as a specialist at the National Hospital for neurology and Neurosurgery. I longed to be a writer since I was a child but didn't actually start writing until I hit my forties and decided I had to realise the dream or give it up. So I realised it! My first book, It's All in your Head was inspired by how difficult it had been to watch my patients struggle with serious psychosomatic disability with each feeling they were alone. Knowing this was a difficult subject, I was really touched by how the book was received and was honoured to be awarded the Wellcome Book Prize for it. I have since written Brainstorm that teaches people about the brain through stories of people with epilepsy and The Sleeping Beauties about mass psychogenic illness.

Stories are powerful. I have been honoured to have been told many thousands of stories over my lifetime, first as a doctor and now as a writer. I continue to work as a full time doctor and continue to try to effect change through the stories I'm told. My latest obsession is with medical overdiagnosis which has seen me write the Age of Diagnosis which tells the brave and nuanced stories of some incredible people who have both benefitted from and struggled through all that modern diagnosis has to offer.