The FSRH Elphis Christopher Annual Award

We are delighted to announce the introduction of the FSRH Elphis Christopher Annual Award, which will be awarded to the inaugural recipient at the FSRH Annual Conference on 8th December 2023.

Dr Elphis Christopher (1936-2022), Fellow of the FSRH, sadly passed away in December last year. She was an innovator and pioneer in sexual and reproductive health, with an unwavering commitment to advancing knowledge, and improving outcomes and advocating for the reproductive rights of women. Her work was far reaching, in research, clinical practice, education, and advocacy. She worked in family planning and psychosexual clinics in the London Borough of Haringey in 1966 for the Family Planning Association (FPA) and then from 1974 for the NHS. She became the consultant for family planning and reproductive care in Haringey in 1996, retiring in 2009. Her family planning work included domiciliary visiting, seeing over 3,600 women for contraceptive advice. She also ran the psychosexual clinic at UCH from 1981 to 2015 and inaugurated lectures on psychosexual medicine for medical students. She lectured widely and was the author of a book, Sexuality and Birth Control in Community Work (1987 second edition). She became a Fellow of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health in 1993.

Her advocacy work was fearless. She was a staunch advocate for sexual and reproductive health rights, tirelessly working to promote access to comprehensive healthcare services for women, girls and all individuals. This excellent YouTube video will give you more insight to her incredible work.

In honour of Dr Christopher’s memory and her legacy to sexual and reproductive healthcare, we are proud to be implementing this new annual award in her name.

The award is targeted at unsung heroes in SRH. Those that may not be in national, or even local, leadership roles, but who work tirelessly to improve the lives of women and girls, who aren’t afraid to speak out or buck the trend, and who have enabled positive change in the provision of care.

Criteria for the award is as follows:

• Demonstrable positive impact to the health and wellbeing of women
• Uses their position to promote and champion the rights of women, choice and high quality SRH
• Displays empathy and respect for patients, actively listening to the needs of individuals
• Demonstrates an unwavering commitment to high quality care, breaking barriers, innovating and not accepting the status quo where change is needed
• Exemplifies the value of teamwork, collaboration and values the contribution of colleagues across all professional roles and grades
• An FSRH member (NB. does not need to be in current practice and can be a retired member)

We are now inviting nominations for the 2023 award from the FSRH membership. All members of any membership type can nominate up to one person for the 2023 award. The nominations will be reviewed by a judging panel comprising members of the FSRH Council, with the winner announced at the 2023 Conference.

Nominations for this award closed midday 15 September 2023.