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Mon, 30 June 2025

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm BST

A Doctor on Recovery and Radical Acceptance

Dr Grace Spence Green In Conversation With Xand van Tulleken

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At the age of twenty-two, Dr Grace Spence Green’s spine was broken at the fourth thoracic vertebra. One day, she was in hospital supporting patients, the next she was fighting for her own life.

What does it mean to heal when the world keeps asking what’s wrong?

Grace Spence Green was walking through a shopping centre when a man fell three floors and landed on her. As Grace struggled to piece together her new life as a wheelchair user, she wondered how she could be both a doctor and a patient.

What does it mean to heal when the world keeps asking what’s wrong? How can we fight for change as individuals – whilst maintaining the networks of care that bind us together? 

Grace joins Dr Xand van Tulleken to share how she went from idealistic medical student to spinal-injury patient, and then to qualified doctor and vocal disability activist. From questioning the value we place on independence, to giving advice on how to joyously embrace life as we are, Grace will take us on a journey of near-death, recovery and radical acceptance.

Tickets to this online event are free for members of How To +.

Praise for Grace Spence Green’s To Exist As I Am:

“A wonderfully intricate, heartfelt account of the blurred line between patient and doctor. This book explores the strength and the fragility of the human body and celebrates the depth and tenacity of the human spirit. Grace’s story is immersive, inspiring and life-affirming.” – Viv Groskop

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Grace Spence Green

Doctor and Disability Rights Activist

Grace Spence Green is a junior doctor working to challenge the narratives surrounding disability, medicine and identity. In 2018, aged 22 and a 4th year medical student, she sustained a spinal cord injury and is now a full-time wheelchair user. Since her life-changing injury, Grace has become a passionate advocate for the disabled community, appearing in the BMJ and Guardian, and across TV and radio.

Dr Xand van Tulleken

Doctor and Broadcaster

Dr Xand van Tulleken is best known for hosting the award winning CBBC series, Operation Ouch, alongside his twin brother Chris, as well as appearing regularly on BBC One’s Morning Live. He trained in medicine at Oxford University and worked for over a decade in the NHS as a hospital doctor. He specialised in public health at Harvard University and worked in humanitarian crises in Sudan, Uganda, Myanmar and the Republic of Congo. He is an Associate Professor of Public Health at University College London. Xand is one of the UK’s leading science presenters, having worked on many broadcaster’s flagship health and science programmes including BBC’s Horizons, Channel 4’s Dispatches and medical history documentaries for Channel 5. He has worked in health systems all over the globe and writes and commentates on a wide range of health issues including, diet, exercise and the rise of personalised medicine.

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