Courtesy: Sally Arnison
A Scottish community pharmacist has been recognised in the New Year Honours list.
Sally Arnison, pharmacist and director of Barnton Pharmacy and Travel Clinic in Edinburgh, has become a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her services to healthcare and the community in Edinburgh.
Arnison, who is a previous Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s ’I Love My Pharmacist’ short-listed regional finalist, told The Pharmaceutical Journal: “I feel hugely humbled. I’m still pretty flabbergasted. I’m still waiting for somebody to tell me that it’s a huge joke”.
Arnison, a prescriber, whose pharmacy runs minor ailments and travel clinics for patients, said: “I think I have been very fortunate to work in Scotland where there have been many opportunities [for community pharmacists].
“In Scotland, we have been pushing forward services to maximise the opportunities for community services. We have a chief pharmacist who has a very good vision for where pharmacists should be going and more locally we have a director of pharmacy who is empowering pharmacists to the get the most out of their skills.”
The higher award of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) was awarded to a leading pharmacy academic.
Martyn Davies, who recently retired after more than 30 years from the University of Nottingham where he was the professor of biomedical surface chemistry in the School of Pharmacy, was made a CBE.
He joined the university in 1985 and became the head of its pharmacy school in 2000, a role he held for three years.
He was involved in a number of spin-out companies including being co-founder and chairman of Molecular Profiles Ltd. The company, which achieved the Queens Award for Industry in Enterprise, was involved in the development of medicines, and was later sold to become part of Juniper Pharmaceuticals.
Paying tribute to Davies, the university’s current head of the School of Pharmacy, professor Clive Roberts, said: “I am really delighted that Martyn’s wonderful academic career in pharmaceutical sciences and his talent to translate this work to substantial commercial exploitation has been recognised in this way. He has played a very significant role in the success of the School of Pharmacy for three decades and we have a lot to thank him for.”
Caroline Dive, professor of cancer pharmacology and deputy director of Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, was also recognised for her services to cancer research with a CBE.
Dive and her team are working on developing ‘liquid biopsies’ that hunt for cancer cells or molecules within cancer cells that have broken free from tumours and are circulating in the bloodstream. These biopsies offer clues about how cancer develops, grows and spreads, what treatment might be best and how tumours can become resistant to treatment.
Professor Philip Routledge, who is clinical director of the All Wales Therapeutics and Toxicology Centre in Cardiff, received a CBE for services to medicine.
As director Routledge, who is also Emeritus Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, Cardiff University, leads a team of pharmacists and clinical pharmacologists to promote the safe, effective and cost-effective use of medicines in Wales.
A consultant clinical pharmacologist, he was appointed an honorary consultant general physician at University Hospital Llandough in South Glamorgan in 1981.
