Dr Michael Edward Shipley, Consultant Rheumatologist, UCHL, BAPAM
Mike Shipley, who died on 15 July 2022, had a lifelong interest in music and the performing arts, and as Consultant Rheumatologist at University College Hospital, London, it was natural for him to become concerned for, and involved in, healthcare for performers. Over 14 years he was a central and influential presence at BAPAM, not only as a greatly valued clinician but also as Trustee from 2008-2020. He served on the Medical Committee from 2010- 2021, including being the first Chair of the Musculoskeletal Working Group. He was also Medical Advisor to the ENO Orchestra under the AMABO scheme. In 2010-11 his leadership was crucial in helping BAPAM to set up the (still unique) MSc in Performing Arts Medicine at UCL.
As a doctor, Mike was a great listener, kind and sympathetic, and a very practical problem-solver. As a colleague, no problem, clinical or otherwise, was too big or too small that he would not give it his full attention and come up with a measured, and always positive, suggestion. He believed passionately in the work that BAPAM does and always put patients front and centre of his approach.
Mike and Philip’s great love was opera. They were patrons of several arts organisations and festivals, but typical of their generosity was their annual sponsorship of an opera student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. One of their beneficiaries, Phoebe Haines, remembers Mike with great fondness:
‘Mike had the ability to make you feel seen and heard from the instant you began talking, and he had a way of quietly assuring you that your opinions mattered and were worthy. Mike and Philip were assigned to me as the sponsors of my Guildhall Scholarship, and I felt so lucky and fortunate to have had the great good fortune to have been ‘matched’ with such wonderful people. Whilst my studies at Guildhall finished in 2015, Mike and Philip continued to be my cheerleaders at many musical events, coming to support me in the audience of many concerts, talks, and outreach workshops that we did with ENO. Even throughout the pandemic, they watched all of the online concert programmes I prepared, and I felt the power of their friendship and support. When I think of Mike and the legacy he left, I think of the Maya Angelou quotation: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”’
Mike was passionate about the Performing Arts Medicine MSc programme that was established at UCL in 2011. He worked voluntarily offering many hours to form curriculum, supervise research and teach. Students cherished learning from him and would not miss his lectures which were friendly, full of clinical experience and his evident love for the arts and the performing artists. He would supervise studies on musculoskeletal but also on general health matters affecting performers, the last being on injuries of musical theatre performers which was published just after his death last year. He was hoping for a wider research programme to be set up at UCL and his ideas for a PAM Research Hub are informing this new initiative. Mike travelled to the Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA) Symposium in the USA regularly to meet up with his international colleagues, and was looking forward to bringing the conference to London. UCL honoured Mike with the Mike Shipley Research Award which is offered every year to one student on the MSc programme. He was looking towards a Research Fellowship in Performing Arts Medicine and with these inspirational thoughts he left us to continue.
Dr Penny Wright, BAPAM Trustee (Honorary Medical Director to 2022)
Dr Hara Trouli, BAPAM Physician and Medical Committee; UCL Performing Arts Medicine Course Lead