'As a neurosurgeon, I lived in a world filled with fear and suffering, death and cancer. But rarely, if ever, did I think about what it would be like if what I witnessed at work every day happened to me. This book is the story of how I became a patient myself.'

As a retired brain surgeon, Henry Marsh thought he understood illness, but he was unprepared for the impact of his diagnosis of advanced prostate cancer. In April 2021, Henry announced his diagnosis, and teamed up with Humanists UK to launch a (successful) campaign for Parliament to launch an inquiry into assisted dying.

In 2022, Henry’s new book, And Finally: Matters of Life and Death, explored what happens when someone who has spent a lifetime on the frontline of life and death finds himself contemplating what might be his own death sentence, and Henry will address these themes in his talk for Humanists UK.

As he navigates the bewildering transition from doctor to patient, he is haunted by past failures and projects yet to be completed, and frustrated by the inconveniences of illness and old age. But he is also more entranced than ever by the mysteries of science and the brain, the beauty of the natural world and his love for his family.

At this very special event, Henry will also speak on his life of service, on healthcare in the UK in 2022, and on the importance of securing the right to die in the UK.

Dr Henry Marsh is a neurosurgeon of over 40 years' experience, and was until 2015 the senior consultant neurosurgeon at the Atkinson Morley Wing at St George's Hospital in South London. For decades, and even to the present day, he has travelled to Ukraine regularly to perform otherwise infeasible operations, for free.

He was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s 2010 Birthday Honours, for services to Medicine in the UK and Ukraine.