E89: Dr Alex George: My Hardest Day In A&E, Family Suicide & Finding TRUE Purpose.

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

FlightStory

Society & Culture, Business, Education

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2021

⏱️ 126 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alex George is a pure inspiration, thats one of the best ways I can describe him, he’s selfless, self aware and just an all round great guy. Having grown up in Nantgaredig, a village near Carmarthen, Wales. He is the oldest of three children. George studied Medicine at the University of Exeter and went on to work in Emergency Medicine at University Hospital Lewisham in London.

In 2018, George appeared in the fourth series of the ITV2 reality dating series Love Island. Following the show, he returned to working part-time at Lewisham whilst also making regular media appearances speaking about mental health on ITV morning shows including Good Morning Britain, Lorraine and Loose Women.

In 2019 George launched his podcast The Waiting Room with Dr Alex in which he interviews other healthcare professionals about topical health and wellbeing issues.

In July 2020, George's youngest brother Llyr died by suicide. In January 2021, George launched a campaign requesting the UK Government prioritise mental health amongst children and adolescents. During Children's Mental Health Week in February 2021, George met with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who appointed George to the newly created position of Youth Mental Health Ambassador. In addition, George also became a member of the Mental Health in Education Action Group.

This conversation has it all, its gripping, its open, it’s honest and it had me nearly in tears almost 3 or 4 times. I can’t express to you how selfless and down to earth this guy is but you’ll find that out from our conversation today.

Alex:

https://www.instagram.com/dralexgeorge/?hl=en

https://twitter.com/dralexgeorge

Sponsor:

uk.huel.com

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I've gone from 200 followers on Instagram to 1 million in nine weeks.
0:04.0	I just had tasted the failure so much that I wanted that success.
0:08.0	One of the biggest things was going back to work. I went back to A&E.
0:12.0	I am working in a position where I'm the recessed department of a very busy hospital in A&E, in London.
0:18.0	The maternity rate with COVID is around 1%.
0:20.0	I am seeing that percentage of people who are these sickest who are in the hospital.
0:24.0	I could hear in his voice instantly that something really bad happened.
0:28.0	I just had straight away like who's who's died.
0:30.0	It was weird the whole world closed in.
0:32.0	I can't explain it sounds very dramatic.
0:34.0	It was like almost a spot that came onto me that moment and I was like no, it can't be.
0:38.0	I just couldn't believe it. That's the thing about suicide or you know, about when these things happen.
0:42.0	It can happen out of nowhere and if everyone around that person is that guilt that you carry I think forever.
0:48.0	Asking staff honestly, when is the last time you genuinely sat down?
0:52.0	I thought about what you want to do and what actually is your purpose?
0:55.0	What makes you happy? And if you haven't done it in the last year or so, do it.
0:59.0	We had a phone call again and she said it's back.
1:03.0	I'm going to watch a mean as if the cancer's back.
1:05.0	What do you say to someone who is dying in the next couple of weeks?
1:09.0	What can you say? A lot of it's nonverbal.
1:11.0	You have a hug and you just share that moment, don't you?
1:14.0	But when you walk out of that room it's like wow, I'm not seeing her again.
	...

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