Jane Symons

Jane Symons (born 1959) is an Australian media consultant, journalist and author based in London. She edited the health pages of The Sun from 2004 to 2009.[1]

Career

Symons edited the health pages of The Sun from 2004 to 2009, during which time she led a successful campaign for the breast cancer drug trastuzumab (sold as Herceptin) to be made available on Britain's National Health Service for women in early stages of the HER2 form of the disease.[2] By highlighting delays in the implementation of Britain's national bowel cancer screening, she also forced the British government to meet its own deadlines on the tests.[3]

Unusually for a tabloid health writer, Symons was praised in the British Medical Journal, where Professor David Colquhoun of the Department of Pharmacology, at University College London wrote that "It isn’t often that a Murdoch tabloid produces a better account of a medical problem than anything the Department of Health’s chief scientific advisor can muster.".[4]

A frequent critic of unproven therapies she has debunked homeopathy [5] and also written about the controversial Dore Programme for dyslexia.[6] She has also been mentioned in Parliament in relation to her efforts to expose serious problems within the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority [7] and to raise awareness of hepatitis C [8]

Symons set up her own consultancy in 2009. She provides media training, advice and strategy to clients in the health, pharmaceutical and PR sector and is often invited to speak on health and the media or contribute to expert panels.[9][10] She continues to write on health issues and has contributed to many of Britain's national newspapers, including The Times, Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, the Daily Express and Sunday Express. She was health editor of Woman's Own magazine and chief sub-editor of the The Daily Telegraph Saturday magazine.

Personal Life

Symons has a lovely daughter called Lydia (b.1995.)

Awards

Symons received Cancer Research UK's "National Communicator" Flame of Hope Award in 2007.

She was short-listed for Health Editor of the Year in the Medical Journalists' Association's Awards in 2009.[11]

Books

Symons' work has been translated into Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Spanish, Swedish and Russian.[12]

Family

Symons is the younger sister of Australian TV personality and musician Red Symons.

References

  1. ↑ http://janesymonsmedia.com/
  2. ↑ Symons, Jane (2006-05-25). "The Sun gets a Hercepwin". The Sun. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
  3. ↑ Archived 9 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ David Colquhoun. "Secret remedies: 100 years on - Colquhoun 339". bmj.com. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
  5. ↑ Symons, Jane (2009-08-06). "Herbalists seen to be given approval will help them prey on gullible patients | The Sun |Woman". The Sun. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
  6. ↑ Symons, Jane (2009-12-17). "ASA not happy as Dore opens its doors again | The Sun |Woman|Health|Health". The Sun. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
  7. ↑ Department of the Official Report (Hansard), House of Commons, Westminster (2010-01-12). "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 12 Jan 2010 (pt 0003)". Publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
  8. ↑ Department of the Official Report (Hansard), House of Commons, Westminster. "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 11 Jul 2005 (pt 38)". Publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
  9. ↑ Gemma O'Reilly (2009-07-07). "increased communication with consumers needed to dispel food myths". Prweek.com. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
  10. ↑ "HCA Conference - The Future of Healthcare Communications". PMLive. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
  11. ↑ "Powered by Google Docs" (PDF). Docs.google.com. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
  12. ↑ "Perseus Books Home". Perseusbooks.com. Retrieved 2010-09-29.


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