Being a member of the youth board for youthhealthtalk, I got the pleasure of being invited to the charity’s 10th anniversary party in the museum of London. It was all very exciting, champagne to celebrate, lots of waiters walking around with platters of food, and getting my photo with Hugh Grant was definately a highlight of the night, but the best thing about the evening was getting to see what I part of and learning about how the charity came to be what it is today. Dr Ann McPherson is co-founder and medical director of the DIPEx charity, and she is such an inspiring woman.

During the speeches, which included one from Hugh Grant and the Health minister the main theme was apparent, how much of wonderful, courageous woman Ann is. Her own experience with ill health inspired her to create something that would allow people to share their own experiences with ill health, the information they were given and how they coped, something that Ann did not have access to herself when dealing with breast cancer.

From that idea DIPEx has grown over the 10 years to what it is today, 2 highly successful websites; healthtalkonline.org and youthhealthtalk.org and over 55 conditions that have been thoroughly researched and shared on these websites to help so many people that may feel confused, worried or not understand what they are going through. It was a lovely evening and it was wonderful celebrating not only the 10th year of the charity but celebrating everything that Ann is and has done.