Stories

We tell stories about health and human experience. Our words and pictures make connections, provoke new thinking and share lived experiences.

  • In pictures

Patient power

Needle, a small London-based group, led the early fight for patient rights. Leona Letts reveals how they championed giving patients a louder voice in their own care.

Part of Inside our collections

  • Photo story

The surgical toolmaker's craft

When it comes to precision surgical tools, only the hand and eye of a skilled toolmaker will do.

  • In pictures

Zines as 'crip doulas'

Find out how 'crip doula' zines offer support, advice, resources, and share the complex feelings and experiences around disability.

Part of Zines at Wellcome Collection
  • Photo story

NHS night cleaners

NHS night cleaners are often not seen and not heard by the public they serve. Through Lewis Khan’s photographs and interviews, they reveal the vital role they play in keeping our hospitals safe.

  • Book extract

Waking up in a new body

Grace Spence Green was a fourth-year medical student when a man jumped off a balcony in a shopping centre and landed on her. She recalls her first moments in the hospital as a newly disabled patient.

Black History Month

Discover personal and historical stories from around the world.

  • Serial

Kola cultures

Explore the kola nut and its value as a medicinal and social resource in Africa to its transportation, commodification and use as an ingredient in the West.

  • Article

The secret lives of Britain’s first Black physicians

Dr Annabel Sowemimo explores the web of connections between early Black British doctors, the role of empire in West Africa and the pernicious reach of scientific racism.

Part of Eugenics and other stories

Medics, migration and the NHS

In the 1960s the NHS became Britain’s biggest employer. So to help fill all those jobs, the government brought in thousands of workers from abroad.

Part of The history of the NHS
  • Article

Thomas Sankara and the stomachs that made themselves heard

Thomas Sankara’s vision to transform farming and health in Burkina Faso turned to dust with his assassination. Perry Blankson highlights the considerable achievements of Sankara’s brief span in power.

Part of The taste of health
  • Article

Giving shape to sound

Fascinated by language and how music feels, Deaf rapper Signkid creates tracks that give shape to sound. He discusses inspiration, access and performing for all audiences, D/deaf and hearing alike.

Part of Art, activism and access
  • Article

How the slave trade’s medical legacies persist

Micha Frazer-Carroll, uncovers the historical links between enslavement and disability to better understand her family’s complex attitudes towards healthcare.

Part of Inside our collections
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Comics

Explore new perspectives on bodies, brains and health with our guest comic artists.

Books

We publish thought-provoking books exploring health and human experiences.

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  • Book extract

Waking the dead

Historian Molly Conisbee reflects on how we’ve paid our respects to the dead over the centuries – from lively gatherings around open coffins to sympathetic text messages – asking how mourning rituals can create communities.

Part of Inside our books
  • Article

How the slave trade’s medical legacies persist

Micha Frazer-Carroll, uncovers the historical links between enslavement and disability to better understand her family’s complex attitudes towards healthcare.

Part of Inside our collections
  • Long read

Letting go of IVF

Fertility treatment is physically and emotionally arduous, with no guarantees. Jessa Fairbrother describes her decision not to have IVF and the complexity of living with that choice.

  • Article

Pregnancy, parenting, and embracing blindness

Amy Kavanagh, who is blind, shares the delight she feels in her young, sighted son, and her growing acceptance of the ways his experiences will differ from hers.

Part of The Joy of Being Disabled
  • Article

Disability, desire, and pleasure unlocked

Roxy Murray dives into the raw, intimate truths of sex and pleasure as a disabled person, sharing an unapologetic and explicit journey through her frustrations and desires.

Part of The Joy of Being Disabled
  • Short film

Exploring Deaf space at London College of Fashion

In this British Sign Language (BSL) film, activist and architectural designer Christopher Laing outlines the five principles of Deaf space and shares his thoughts on identity and inclusive design.

Part of The Joy of Being Disabled
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