Elizabeth Sinclair Miller (born 27 February 1957) is a British physician, surgeon, campaigner and writer noted for her outspoken stance on mental health, and
bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...
(manic depression) in particular. Although she has a long history of television and radio appearances, she came to public prominence in
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...
's
Emmy Award-winning documentary ''
The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive'' in 2006. In 2008 she was voted
Mind Champion of the Year by public poll.
Biography
The daughter of a
gerontologist
Gerontology ( ) is the study of the social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of aging. The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Greek , ''geron'', "old man" and , ''-logia'', "study of". Th ...
and a theatre nurse, Miller is the third generation of her family to become a physician. A difficult child by her own admission, she managed to persuade her parents to send her to
Cheltenham Ladies' College
Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls' schools nationally, the school was established in 1853 to p ...
at the age of eleven. From there she went to the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
, graduating from
King's College in 1979. After marriage to Richard Armstrong in 1995 she assumed his surname until separation in 1999. She suffered from a series of bipolar breakdowns, and now campaigns on behalf of the mentally ill.
Career
She began surgical training in 1982 and her Fellowship of the
Royal College of Surgeons
The Royal College of Surgeons is an ancient college (a form of corporation) established in England to regulate the activity of surgeons. Derivative organisations survive in many present and former members of the Commonwealth. These organisations a ...
was conferred in 1983, whereupon she began training as a
neurosurgeon
Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peri ...
. That same year, she developed several
malignant melanoma
Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye ...
s, and believes she might not have received treatment in time had she not been a surgeon. Over the course of the next few years she published several academic papers, and in 1989 was
Cheyne Medal