In 1966 I was destined for a degree in history but changed direction and headed for medicine.  I became a consultant  neurologist, focusing  on long-term neurological conditions such as Parkinson's disease.  I was Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Nottingham, with my clinical base in Derby. My basic medical education began in London's St Thomas's Hospital, to which I returned for clinical training after three years at Cambridge University. I studied Parkinson's disease during a three year spell at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland and then completed my training as a neurologist in Oxford.  During my last ten years as a physician I trained as a Systemic and Family Psychotherapist, and have continued as a family therapist ever since ending my  medical  work on my 65th birthday, in January 2013.