Dayalan Clarke (Chair) was born in CMC, when his father was on the staff as the chaplain. He went on to do both his undergraduate and postgraduate medical training at CMC in surgery. He and his wife moved to the UK in 1991. Dayalan worked as Consultant Breast and Oncoplastic Surgeon at Warwick Hospital before taking early retirement from the NHS in 2018. Dayalan’s desire is to work for the poor and underprivileged in areas of need. He spent 6 months in 2019 helping the surgical department in the Baptist Christian Hospital (BCH) in Tezpur, N India. In 2020 he returned with Tezpur with his wife to work there for three months, until having to return to the UK earlier than planned due to the pandemic.

Anitha Samuel (Treasurer) trained as an accountant in India and later in the UK. Her association with CMC Vellore is through her husband, Dr Johnson Samuel, who trained at CMC. She spent three years in Vellore during which time she also got to work at the finance department at CMC as part of her accountancy training. She later worked with NHS trusts in Wales and England and NHS Finance at the Welsh Assembly Government, Cardiff. She lives in Billericay, England with her family.

Susan Das finished MD General Medicine from Vellore in 1995. In 2003, she came to the UK, trained to be a GP and obtained her MRCGP qualification. She is currently working as a GP in the riverside town of Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire. She’s married to Kaustuv Das, also batch of 1984 MBBS who did MS General Surgery in Vellore and is now working as a Consultant Breast and Oncoplastic Surgeon in Hereford. Susan was inspired by two recent visits from directors of CMC which demonstrated how progressive and relevant CMC continues to be while continuing to deliver Aunt Ida’s vision in ministering to the poor. As part of the Board of Trustees, she is pleased to further this collaboration of working together in the spirit of Christ.

Mike Keighley is a Colorectal Surgeon and Emeritus Professor of Surgery University of Birmingham.  He first visited CMC in 2002 when he was exploring options for voluntary work in retirement. He helped set up and provided support to the new Department of Colorectal Surgery at CMC from 2004-2015. He also helped to establish prayer support for CMC largely by making Maitri available to those wishing to pray on a weekly basis. His aspirations for FOV are that they support the medical work of CMC in a spirit that honours the name of Jesus, so that CMC remains a beacon of service and hope for the people of India, providing care for all, independent of their ability to pay.

Isaac Poobalan is Provost of St Andrew’s Cathedral, Aberdeen and Chaplain at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. He is the son of Evangelist Poobalan (1946-1976), Chaplaincy, CMC and was born and brought up in CMC. Isaac hopes that FOV UK will be a true Friend of CMC, promoting its Christian life and witness in India, developing links between the UK and Vellore to enable the work of CMC, raising funds to help small scale projects and praying for its welfare and witness. He would love to see a Prayer and Spiritual Centre for Retreat, primarily for the staff and students and all who make a pilgrimage of spiritual healing to Vellore from around the world.

Thomas Pulimood was born and brought up on the Christian Medical College campus Vellore. He went to medical school in CMC Vellore (batch of 1987) and cares much for CMC and its ‘Christ centred’ approach to mission and purpose.  He is consultant respiratory physician at the West Suffolk Hospital with an education and training interest. He is director of studies for graduate medicine (clinical), at Wolfson college where he is fellow and tutor on the graduate course in medicine in Cambridge. Thomas would like to facilitate existing and new links between CMC Vellore, Cambridge and the rest of UK through the work of the FOV UK.

Arabella Onslow was moved to change her whole career path and study medicine after a life-changing trip to Vellore and CMC in 1989. She is now a GP in Cumbria. She is passionate about wellbeing and community health and spent a year’s sabbatical in RUHSA in 2006 after completing her GP training to work on rural community projects and was privileged to help establish the Elderly Welfare centres in KV Kuppam district. She continues to visit RUHSA every year, learning more about the amazing work they do for the poor & vulnerable rural communities around. She is chair of the FOV VRCT sub-committee dedicated to rural improvement schemes.

Richard Rajamanickam completed post graduate studies in Medical Audiology from Manchester University before working in Deafness Research at CMC. Back in the UK, he studied Neuroaudiology, specialising in Inner Ear Diseases and worked in the NHS as Head of Audiology & Senior Chief Audiologist until his retirement in 2010. He sees being part of FOV as enabling him to serve the poor and marginalised people; he now spends a significant proportion of the year at RUHSA providing audiology services to senior citizens. He hopes to expand audiology services to neonates and school going children. He has a particular interest in Mission Hospital Initiatives in CMC.

Johnson Samuel is a Consultant Respiratory Physician and Director of Medical Education at Basildon University Hospital. He graduated from CMC and then completed higher specialist training in Respiratory Medicine in Cardiff. Dr Samuel has built educational links with a number of medical departments in CMC Vellore and facilitated placements of CMC faculty for study leave in the UK. He is currently the President of CMC Vellore UK Alumni. He hopes to foster closer working and collaboration between the UK alumni and FOV both in the UK and internationally and believes both organisations have a crucial role to play in partnering with CMC Vellore.

Hugh Skeil moved to Vellore in 1999 together with his wife Debbie to work at CMC as CMS mission partners. From 2007 until 2021, he was the manager of CMC’s Development Office which raises charitable funds for the hospital by developing links and partnerships with individuals and organisations in India and abroad. Now back in the UK he is Finance and Transformation Manager at the Grange, Bookham which provides vital services supporting people with learning disabilities to lead independent and fulfilling lives.