Earthquake. War. Flood. Fire. Terrorist attack. Plane crash. Pandemic. No one expects to experience one of these events, let alone all of them…

Lucy Easthope has lived with disaster her whole life. From witnessing the impact of Hillsborough on her childhood hometown as a young girl to planning for and providing relief for those affected by events including 9/11, the Iraq War and the Grenfell Fire.

Lucy plans for unthinkable, life-changing events. When a plane crashes, a tower block bursts into flames or a pandemic breaks out, she’s the one they call. In every catastrophe, she is there to pick up the pieces and prepare for the next one. Her job is to plan for when things go wrong and respond with action and insight when it does. Disaster exposes us, our society, and our leaders, to our core.

In this livestream conversation with Professor Dame Sue Black, Lucy will look back at a life spent on the edges of disaster – telling the story of disaster relief as the little known profession it is. It promises to be an astonishing look behind the scenes of every major disaster of the past two decades, including 9/11, the 7/7 bombings, the Shoreham air disaster, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Covid-19 pandemic – Lucy worked on them all.

It’s as much a story of community and coping, as it is about moments of tragedy, and how, when the dust actually settles, is when the most important work is to be done.