‘I’VE REALISED IT’S POSSIBLE TO MAKE CHANGE’

Professor Chloe Orkin, 48, is a consultant physician and professor of HIV medicine, whose pioneering work was inspired by the loss of a close friend. She’s the president of the Medical Women’s Federation, and lives in London with her wife Flick, 58, their three dogs and two cats.

At my medical school interview in Johannesburg, South Africa, I was asked how I would manage being a doctor and having children. I remember saying, ‘I bet you didn’t ask that of the male applicants,’ and I left in a fury. More than 30 years on, there are still clear and measurable inequities in our profession.

I was raised to be a feminist. My father would point out that words like ‘human’ or ‘person’ contain within them ‘man’ or ‘son’, and my mother would shoo me out of the kitchen, telling me it was not my place. I was interested in being a cellist, but they steered me towards being a doctor. In my third year of medical school I discovered viruses and microbiology and found it fascinating. There were all these bugs, finding incredible ways of becoming resistant to antibiotics.

Then, later, I rented a room from a gay man whose boyfriend was living with

HIV. He became an amazing friend and, as I watched him and others dealing with the stigma associated with HIV, my sense of who I was and what I wanted to do just clicked. I saw the marginalisation around homophobia, with HIV labelled the gay plague. Back then there were no antiretroviral drugs available and my friend – and his friends – died. Today, people diagnosed early with HIV have a normal life expectancy.

I left South Africa for the UK to specialise in HIV at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. I was chosen to go to Botswana, Southern Africa, with my wife Flick, an HIV nurse, to set up the country’s first national antiretroviral programme. When I returned to the UK, I began my consultant career at Barts

Health NHS Trust, building a research centre to develop drugs.

One of the biggest challenges for

HIV patients is that they require lifelong therapy. I was the global lead investigator for one of the trials of the first-ever long-acting injectable treatment, which has just been licensed in the EU and the

UK. I’ve also led campaigns to encourage routine testing for HIV and hepatitis B and C. People often don’t come forward, so routine blood tests in emergency departments, for example, contribute to early diagnosis. This is now being rolled out more widely.

Following our antiretroviral drugs trial, I was interviewed on television for my work. Afterwards I was badly trolled on social media. There were comments – predominantly from men – about my hair colour, my clothes, if ‘it’ was a he or a she. So I decided to stand as vice president of the Medical Women’s Federation so I could help other women find their voices. This year, I was elected president and I want to carry on celebrating the amazing work that female medics do.

I’ve realised it’s possible to make change. I used to see myself as a little person who could focus on scientific research, but as a medical person in a leadership position, I can do more.

During lockdown I found space to focus on other hobbies. I now spend so much time digging and planting my garden, my friends call me Farmer Orkin. And I’m learning to play the ukulele.

I’m going to carry on calling out sexism and homophobia – you have to believe you can make a contribution.

‘I’ll carry on calling out sexism and homophobia’