The Team

Powering Up brings together young people and clinicians to redesign healthcare from the ground up. Not just as partners—but as equals. In London and Birmingham, we’re co-creating bold new solutions to health inequality, using creativity as our common ground and collaboration as our engine. This isn’t top-down. It’s power shared.

Powering Up a Health Foundation-funded pilot project and interprofessional collaboration between WHAM, CANAL Project, and film and digital creatives One-to-One Development Trust

Creative Health

When art meets medicine, change gets personal. We’re testing two powerful methods:

Science workshops in Birmingham
Arts-based projects in London

Both are built around the same idea: real change starts when people can tell their story—and be heard. Creative health helps unlock stuck systems, rebuild trust, and spark ideas that stats alone can’t reach. For communities often ignored or excluded, it’s a way back in.

By Young People, For Young People

Led by lived experience. This project doesn’t just include young people—it’s co-led by them.

From our youth advisory group to our project coordinator, young people shape every decision, every design, and every breakthrough. We listen, learn, and grow—together.

What drives us? Curiosity, respect, and a deep belief in what’s possible when people are seen and heard.

Meet the Team

Alex Johnson

Managing Partner

Alex brings lived experience and creative insight to ensure young people’s voices are central to every stage of the project.

Amina Patel

Managing Partner

Amina connects frontline healthcare with inclusive co-design, bridging clinical knowledge and community values.

Sara Mendes

Managing Partner

Sara leads our London-based arts projects, turning creative energy into personal and social change.

Leila Thompson

Project Coordinator

Leila ensures every piece of the project comes together—on time, with heart, and driven by young people's priorities.

Guddi Singh

Co-Founders

GUDDI

Dr Guddi Singh is a doctor, broadcaster, and co-founder and director of the Wellbeing & Health Action Movement (WHAM).
As a neurodevelopmental and social paediatrician, Guddi is interested in the broader factors contributing to child health. She researches how we might radically reimagine health to address inequalities for her PhD at King’s College London.
Guddi’s policy experience at the World Health Organization (WHO) and Health Education England (HEE) and global clinical experience give her a critical

Mary Salama

collaborator

Mary

Judi-Alston

Co-Founders

Judi-Alston

Hannah Zhu

Co-Founders

Hannah Zhu

Hannah is a community paediatric Consultant working in London. She is passionate about tackling health inequalities and supporting families physically, emotionally and spiritually at every possible opportunity in an integrated way. She values working with health, social care, education and third sector organisations. She previously volunteered for Tamar, a charity helping sex trafficking victims in London. She has lots of experience in quality improvement and education and uses this to empower colleagues to have the confidence to address child poverty at work. When not working, Hannah is mum to 2 very entertaining children, enjoys food a lot (both cooking and eating), and runs a mum and baby support group in her local church.