Your Planet Doctors are a group of like-minded people who are passionate about protecting the health of our planet. We bring together individuals and groups who are working in local communities to help reduce the impact of climate change and Covid 19 on their physical and mental health, and help repair the damage done to our environment.
Together, we can have an impact on making our communities more resilient, more sustainable and better prepared to face the challenges ahead. We are particularly focused on food security and want to help support all growing initiatives, from window boxes to allotments, school grounds to public spaces.
The problems can feel huge. Your Planet Doctors is inspired by action, no matter how small. Each small action adds up, each voice added to the calls for change makes it harder to ignore. Let’s face it, no one would have thought a Swedish schoolgirl could draw global attention to climate change. But who hasn’t heard of Greta now?
DRIVEN BY CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE
INSPIRED BY ACTION

Anne Hayden MBE
GP & Founder
I am now a retired GP in East Dorset. For 30 years I specialised in helping those with mental health issues, and in January 2000 was awarded an MBE for this work within the Dorset community.
I started Your Planet Doctors in January 2020 when I suddenly became aware of how vulnerable we could all become to possible food and water shortages in the future and how much mental health was deteriorating in our population. The combined effects of climate change and destruction of our ecosystems struck home, and then COVID 19 hit.
It’s been an eye-opener for two reasons. It showed how reliant many of us are on the supply chains of the big grocery stores, and what happens when those are disrupted, for whatever reason. On a more positive note, the lockdown illustrated how communities could come together to help each other out, even if they hadn’t met before.
Your Planet Doctors mission is to empower our friends and neighbours, and work with them to revitalise the soil and begin to grow their own food, learning to become self sufficient and avoid the anxiety of food insufficiency should it ever occur. If we plant in a sustainable way, as well as avoiding chemicals in fertiliser and pesticides, we could start to achieve our goals. We need to bring back the wildlife, to rewild, to attract the bees for pollination, the birds, by restoring the insect population and much much more. Then there is the benefit of low food miles. Fewer lorries travelling the highways, no refrigerated storage, and no plastic wrapping. All leading to a reduction in carbon emissions.
Your Planet Doctors and our colleagues will work alongside you and show you how.
Growing your own food within small neighbourhood groups addresses all 5 steps to wellbeing, evidence of which is found on the MIND webpage www.mind.org.uk
Getting out in the fresh air, being active, and learning new skills have huge mental and physical benefits, as I saw many times during my career Then there’s the great feeling of being with and helping others, volunteering to support the vulnerable, and then noticing how relationships improve in all walks of life. There is also a great opportunity to practice mindfulness, ie living in the present moment, which I will illustrate to you along your journeys.
So while global warming and our ailing environment feel like impossibly huge issues to try and solve, I believe that doing something always feels better than doing nothing and people power counts for a lot.
Its not about the few doing things perfectly, it’s about everyone doing something imperfectly!!
Together, we will continue to build those caring, sustainable and self sufficient communities, that lockdown has helped us start, and together we will develop that resilience required to face any challenges that might come our way
There are so many wonderful people, and together we can make that difference.
Your Planet Doctors

Michael French
Project coordinator - Grounded Community
Michael came to volunteer at the secret garden in 2014.(see the Grounded Community website) As a community education professional, he spent 28 years engaging communities through youth work, supporting drug and alcohol recovery, community mapping and as a nightclub chaplain. His DJ and dance passions have paid him to get the Grounded project going. He now coordinates all the Grounded projects and supports our community team.
Say hello: [email protected]

Dan Julian
Technical Manager

Lola Phillips
Aged 8 Junior Planet Doctor. Passionate about saving the planet

Julia Davies
Lawyer & Environmental Campaigner

Fee Stewart
Coordinator BCP and Dorset Growers Groups

Angela Gray
Community manager, Coordinator for BCP & Dorset Growers Group

Andy Levinson
Wellbeing Consultant (Verwood GP)

Maret Dymond Basset
Wellbeing Consultant

Asha Blatherwick
Coordinator BCPand Dorset Growers Groups

Lizzie McManus
PR and Social media manager, Coordinator for BCP and Dorset Growers Groups

Sheila Maycock
Wellbeing Consultant

Jonathan Segal
Wellbeing Consultant (Verwood GP)

Cassie Everingham
Resident Coordinator Abri Project

Jess Black
PA to Anne Hayden, Social media Manager for BCP and Dorset Growers Groups

Anne Cassels
Coordinator BCP and Dorset Growers Groups

Elaine Harland
Founder of the early Verwood Environmental Group

Dan Lee
Web Designer
Your Plant Doctors


Colin Andrews
Tree specialist


Harriet Stewart Jones
Permaculture and Community Growing
