Meet the Speaker – Thorrun Govind

Molly: Hi Thorrun, thank you so much for joining me today. For anyone who doesn’t know you, Thorrun is a pharmacist and healthcare lawyer, as well as a familiar face across national television and the media, where she regularly shares practical and accessible health advice. 

She’ll be joining us at The Pharmacy Show this October for our panel, Beyond the counter: women leading the future of pharmacy, in the Business & Services Theatre on Sunday.  

Today, we’re going to talk a little bit about Thorrun’s own career journey, what leadership means to her, and some of the opportunities for women to shape the future of pharmacy. 

So Thorrun, thank you again for joining me. I thought we could start by talking a little bit about your career so far. 

You’ve built a career spanning pharmacy, healthcare law, public health and the media. Can you tell us a little bit about your career journey and how those different strands have come together? 

Thorrun: I qualified as a pharmacist in 2016 and really realised at that point that I was interested in lots of different things. So I was working in a community pharmacy, and I became Chair of what was then the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in England, now the Royal College of Pharmacy (RCPharm). Since then, I’ve been really interested in communication as well, and then I qualified as a lawyer in 2021. So, it’s been a busy 10 years or so in pharmacy, but actually my advocacy for pharmacy started before then as well, trying to raise the profile of the profession. 

 

Molly: Your career has taken you beyond what people might think of as a traditional pharmacy role. Were those different directions something you actively planned, or did your career evolve as opportunities came along? 

Thorrun: Absolutely not. If I’d have sat down and written out a career plan, it wouldn’t look anything like this. But I’m really proud. I think you take an opportunity and you look forward and you think about what your purpose is and what you’re trying to achieve. 

For me, that’s always been about raising the profile of the pharmacy profession but also encouraging patients to understand more about their own healthcare. I’m really interested in health literacy as well. 

 

Molly: A big part of your work involves communicating health information to the public. What have you learnt about how pharmacists can communicate quite complex healthcare information in a way that people can actually understand and use? 

Thorrun: I think we’re the experts at that because people come in off the high street; they may have seen something in the media, and that’s also why I think pharmacists are even more important right now, and pharmacy teams, because we are that evidence-based, trusted expert on the high street, in a hospital, in GP surgeries. So, we’re in different settings, and we bring this analytical, logical, but also creative at times, approach. That’s something that I think is going to be even more important in an increasing age of misinformation, particularly when it comes to healthcare. 

 

Molly: You’ve held leadership roles within pharmacy as well as developing a very public-facing career. Has your idea of what it means to be a leader changed as your career has progressed? 

Thorrun: I think early on I thought leadership was a title, very early on, but that quickly changed. I do believe that everyone can show leadership, whether that’s in a small way or a big way. To me, it’s all important. I always say ‘we’re all like little boats going in the right direction. If we swim together, we’re much more powerful that way.’ 

I think it’s really about what you do with your voice and the opportunities and also supporting other people as well. 

 

Molly: The session that you’re involved in at The Pharmacy Show is called ‘Beyond the counter: women leading the future of pharmacy’. Where do you see women already having an impact on the direction of pharmacy, and where is there still room for greater representation? 

Thorrun: Women are doing an enormous amount to shape pharmacy. We’ve got pharmacy contractors, I’d love to see more of those, but there are women in professional organisations, and in research. 

To me, representation isn’t just about getting women into senior positions. It’s actually about looking at who gets opportunities and who gets heard and who’s getting asked to be in the room in the first place. 

I think we need to broaden what leadership in pharmacy looks like. It doesn’t necessarily mean a title and there are lots of women doing really interesting things across healthcare and influencing pharmacy outside of that traditional structure as well. 

 

Molly: Like you’ve said, leadership doesn’t necessarily mean having a job title. What do you think pharmacy professionals at different stages of their careers can do to have a greater voice and a greater influence within the profession? 

Thorrun: I think we can make it really complicated, but fundamentally, it’s like ‘find something you really care about, become really good at it, and then make yourself useful.’ 

Visibility can be uncomfortable at times, but actually, if nobody knows what you’re interested in or what you can contribute, it’s really hard for opportunities to find you as an individual. So, I think that’s a key aspect as well. 

 

Molly: For women in pharmacy who want to explore opportunities outside of their current role, whether that’s leadership, policy, media, business or anything else, what would you encourage them to think about? 

Thorrun: I think the pharmacy background is really transferable into other areas. You’re communicating, you’ve got that clinical knowledge, you understand healthcare systems and you’re not afraid of dealing with about 20 million things at once. 

I think that’s very prevalent in the profession; you’re always juggling multiple things. 

So, I’m a big believer that you don’t have to leave something behind. You can actually build on your identity and take that to your next role. 

I also think being strategic is really important as well. You don’t have to say yes to everything. Your time really does have value, and we need to be better at recognising that as well. 

 

Molly: What are you hoping people take away from the conversation at The Pharmacy Show, especially people who might not currently see themselves as leaders? 

Thorrun: I think I’d just like people to leave thinking, ‘let me ask that question’. Don’t close things down in your head before you’ve had the opportunity to speak to someone about maybe something that you would like to pursue. 

We need people in the profession who are willing to shape the future of the profession effectively. Where we push the boundaries in any profession is asking how things can be done differently, where do we go next? 

I really appreciate all the pioneers who’ve come before and the ones to come as well, because change is happening. Even in the last 10 years I’ve had in professional practice, things have changed so much. So, I do wonder what the next 10 years are going to look like. 

No doubt we’ll all be coming to The Pharmacy Show though! 

 

Molly: What are you particularly looking forward to at The Pharmacy Show this year? 

Thorrun: It’s always in my diary; it’s just a great opportunity to see everyone. I always say September and October are the busiest months in pharmacy. 

I think it’s just that time to really reconnect with the rest of the profession, see people you haven’t seen, meet new people and start looking at new opportunities for the year ahead as well. 

 

Molly: Thorrun, thank you so much for joining me and for sharing your experiences with us. 

You can hear more from Thorrun at The Pharmacy Show on 11–12 October at the NEC Birmingham, where she’ll be joining the panel Beyond the counter: women leading the future of pharmacy in the Business & Services Theatre, accompanied by other incredible speakers.  

Thank you again, Thorrun, and we look forward to seeing you at the show.