Heather is an Associate Professor within the School of Psychology, Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Portsmouth. She has been a member of the Extreme Environments Laboratory since 2007 where she completed a PhD in the area of Environmental Cross-adaptation in Humans. Prior to that she worked at the Institute of Naval Medicine within the Environmental Medicine Unit for six years.
Heather’s research interests are in the area of water safety and the potential therapeutic use of cold water immersion. Where she is currently completing the first clinical trial to establish the clinical and cost effectiveness of cold water swimming with people experiencing symptoms of depression. She is also trustee of Swim the Wright, supports Mental Health Swims and sits on the medical board of the Ectodermal Dysplasia Society.
In her spare time Heather is a keen open water swimmer having successfully completed a solo crossing of the English Channel, numerous other open water swims including relay swims from Dover to Brighton, round Jersey, Jersey to France, round the Isle of Wight as well as representing the UK in the World Ice Swimming Championships 1k event in 2017. This year she had a year off long distance swimming and completed two channel relays and a Beachy head 10 K swim!
Heather’s talk will focus on “Cold Water Immersion: Kill or Cure”.
