Lucy Watts MBE
Activist
Lucy Watts MBE is a prominent disability, health and palliative care activist from Essex. She works closely with the NHS; sitting on various committees including the NHS Assembly, works with charities including palliative care and disability charities, is a hospice trustee and works for the charity Festival Spirit. She is a sought-after speaker who speaks physically or remotely at conferences and events all over the world, including giving a TEDx talk in 2019.
Lucy provides consultancy to the NHS, organisations, charities and hospices. She also works as an Independent Advocate and care package broker, helping people to access the support they need, and effects change nationally and internationally, including influence globally on palliative care. She even has a personal influence on the Director-General of the World Health Organisation.
In addition, Lucy founded the pioneering Palliative Care Voices network, giving palliative care patients and carers a platform and opportunity to use their voice and be heard.
Lucy’s blog has had more than 450,000 views over seven years, and she has written for a variety of platforms and publications.
She was awarded an MBE for her work at the tender age of 22. Now 26, Lucy devotes her life to her work and making a difference for others, and even managed to get off benefits and into paid work; something she never thought would happen. In her spare time, she acts as a peer mentor and role model to other disabled and chronically ill people.
Useful links
“It’s a privilege to be a voice for others, to effect change in the system and to be able to make a difference. I know my life has contributed something to the world – I leave a legacy – but I also know I have enhanced the lives of others and shown them that a disability or life-limiting illness is not a barrier to achievement.”