10 December 2019

RCSLT president Nick Hewer and Kamini Gadhok MBE, CEO of the RCSLT, have been awarded honorary degrees from Plymouth Marjon University in recognition of their dedication to the speech and language therapy profession.

The conferment of their honorary degrees took place at a ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of Plymouth Marjon University teaching speech and language therapy.

Commenting on his honorary degree, Nick Hewer (who is also the host of Channel 4’s Countdown programme and is a former advisor to Lord Alan Sugar on the BBC’s The Apprentice) said: “It’s a privilege to receive this degree. Speech and language therapists make vital differences to people’s lives – supporting individuals to communicate, eat, drink and swallow safely from birth to end of life. They assist premature babies to feed; support children’s early language and speech development; track patients’ cognitive abilities in awake-craniotomy operations; and much, much more besides, which is why I’m so proud to represent them.”

Of her honorary degree, Kamini Gadhok, said: “I’m delighted to have been recognised in this way by Plymouth Marjon University and am so proud of the work all SLTs do and the impact they make on people’s lives.

“The RCSLT is poised to celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2020 and we’ll be using the whole year to reflect on speech and language therapy pioneers of the past, such as the organisation’s founding fellow Lionel Logue – speech and language therapist to King George VI. We look forward to celebrating the breadth of support SLTs provide to individuals today – from birth to end of life care. And, we’ll be looking ahead at how we can shape the profession so it can continue to transform people’s lives in the future.”

For more information please read the full press release.