THE FINAL HELPING Neil Donnelly
Neil is a Fellow of the BDA and retired Dietetic Services Manager. His main areas of interest are weight management and eating disorders.
The Team at NHD would like to thank Neil for all his work on the magazine over the years. His contribution, support and encouragement have been invaluable.
Dear Reader, It has been a wonderful journey, but the time has come for me to finally step aside from NHD’s Final Helping column. In this last column I have decided to indulge myself with some memories of my 50-plus years in Dietetics. As a regular reader, you may be familiar with some of them. First up has to be when I received the letter in 1966 from Mrs Muriel Westland at the University of Surrey offering me a place on the Nutrition and Dietetics course. My life would have been completely different without that opportunity and I have always been eternally grateful. During my Final Year dissertation on Fitness and Fatness in 1969/70, I arranged with Chelsea Football Club to go along to Stamford Bridge on four separate occasions to assess their first team players. Chelsea went on to win the FA Cup for the first time that season. Alongside this memory is that of meeting my external assessor. When I was informed it was to be none other than Elsie Widdowson, I was thrilled but somewhat terrified! Many years later in 1995 I was asked to second her nomination for an honorary degree at Salford University. She was a quite an amazing lady and it was a wonderful honour for me to be asked and to attend the subsequent degree ceremony. My first job after leaving University was as a VSO Food Consumption Survey Team Leader in Zambia on a three-year UN/FAO Programme. In my second year there, I lived in an isolated village in the Eastern Province for six months as a ‘Nutrition Implementation Officer’. It was an amazing experience and made me realise that I should take nothing for granted and appreciate the subsistence way of life of the Mutondo villagers. Back in the UK, I applied for a job as a dietitian at Ragdale Hall Health Hydro
which was run by Slimming Magazine. I got the job, and at the interview, I met my future wife. It was a whirlwind 18 months, first as a dietitian, then as Personal Assistant to the Managing Director in London and, finally, back to Ragdale Hall as the Manager! I married my Beauty Therapist wife in 1977 and have three daughters, all born at the Victoria Hospital, Blackpool, where I subsequently worked. Moving into the NHS was quite different. As the Head of what was initially a small Department, I was able to expand my interests and activities in the field of Weight Management and Eating Disorders. I was also able to become more involved with the British Dietetic Association, the Department of Health and the then Health Professions Council. I was elected onto the BDA Council as an Ordinary member and sat on a number of committees, including organising the National Conference. Following on from my work with the BDA, especially in relation to founding and editing the publication Adviser, I was made a Fellow of the Association. I was also the Editor of NHD for a number of years. During this time, I have made many friends and met with many colleagues within the profession (maybe it helps being a man!) and have completely exceeded any schoolboy aspirations. It has been a wonderful journey. Thank you to everyone involved, particularly latterly the staff at NHD. I shall now be playing a lot more tennis, having recently had (see pic) coaching from two former Davis Cup players! Thank you for the memories and good health to all. Neil www.NHDmag.com July 2017 - Issue 126
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