About
Rachel Pugh is a award-winning and versatile communicator on medical/health issues and the arts, with both extensive national and regional media experience and a parallel strand in technical writing.
Since 2002, Rachel has had a busy freelance career as a writer and communicator. As a journalist she has been published regularly in The Guardian, The Independent, the Times Educational Supplement, BBC Music Magazine and Classical Music..
Her scientific literacy has also enabled her to gain prestigious work with international companies such as Colgate-Palmolive, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline, on major projects including the 10th anniversary of the launch of the UK’s Meningitis C vaccine programme.
Rachel’s detailed knowledge of the NHS comes from regular consultancy work at NHS North West (and its predecessor organisation), where she set up a good practice publication and database, and led the development of its website. She also spent a year as communications consultant launching the UHSM Academy (a medical education organisation), based at the University Hospital of South Manchester.
All this grew out of her science-based psychology studies at The University of Manchester. She turned down an offer to join a research team, to gain extensive experience in local newspapers, including the Oxford Mail and Times, on BBC radio and North West regional TV. During 11 years at the Manchester Evening News, she won several awards including a specialist medical writing prize. She was both health editor (having set up the newspaper’s first health pages) and arts editor.
Writing about music and dance is an important sideline for Rachel, who is a keen cellist and married to a professional musician. It has brought her interviews with some of the world’s top musicians - including Yo-Yo Ma, Sir Simon Rattle and Dame Janet Baker - and publication in national newspapers, websites and specialist magazines.
Her knowledge and creativity are strengthened by her facility with languages (fluent French, working German and basic Russian) up by enthusiasm and a need to get things right.
