Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne

For ten years as an athlete, right up to competing at the Olympics, what Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne noticed about her body was where every conversation about her health began. But as a patient, she found that knowledge much harder to bring into the room – and eventually, she stopped trusting it herself.

Finding her way to a diagnosis of endometriosis took years, surgery and, ultimately, co-founding a company. Along the way, Charlotte saw first-hand how much a patient’s understanding of their own normal can add to healthcare when that knowledge is welcomed and treated as evidence, rather than simply opinion.

Today, Charlotte is passionate about exploring what could change if healthcare systems better integrated patient expertise into conversations about health and diagnosis. She is proud to be bringing this perspective to TEDxNHS, opening up a conversation about how patients and clinicians can better understand and learn from each other.