The Netmums Podcast - S1 Ep20: Dr Ranj talks vaccines, vomit and why he’d consider adopting

Episode Date: February 2, 2021

Listen as Annie and Wendy catch up with honorary parent, Dr Ranj. Listen as he firmly puts down anti-vaxxers plus what he says people ALWAYS ask him in the supermarket.

You're listening to Sweat, Snot and Tears, brought to you by Netmums. I'm Annie O'Leary. And I'm Wendy Gollage. And together we talk about all of this week's sweaty, snotty and tearful parenting moments. With guests who are far more interesting than we are. So welcome to another episode of Sweat, Snot and Tears. I fear there may be tears on today's podcast because we're recording at tea time, which we don't normally do, ladies and gentlemen.

We normally record in the mornings. And I have children downstairs who are upset that mummy's hogging the Wi-Fi. Wendy, what's happening in your house? Sweat, snots or tears? Tears. Many tears. The children are playing Monopoly with their father because I've kicked them off of the Wi-Fi and it's not going well, if we're honest. Plus, I've hurt my shoulder, so I'm feeling grumpy. What have you done to your shoulder? How did you hurt it? Too long sitting at a desk. Not enough time standing up.

Dr. Ange is going to tell me off. I can tell. Well, isn't it perfect that we've got a doctor on the show this week? Because you can tell him all of your pains and troubles, and he can fix them all. Welcome to the show, Dr. Ange. Hello, everyone. How are you? I i'm good thank you and

please don't tell me about your ailments so one of the questions i wanted to ask you today wasn't about my aches and pains but i was going to say when you're walking around sainsbury's or tesco's do you get inundated and dated with people coming i've got a veruca and i just can't seem to shift it or are people quite nice Do you know what's really interesting? Everyone's lovely. Everyone's lovely. Nobody ever asks me a medical question. The first question I get is, are you a real doctor?

Which is quite worrying, actually, given that I've been a doctor for 20 years. Yeah, thinking all of those years of medical school and they don't believe that it's real well i was like well my acting skills aren't that good so this doesn't bode well for me and the other question i get is where does your poo come from that will never ever leave oh no this is gonna make me laugh so i told two of my friends today that i had to rush home from the school run because I was doing this podcast recording and both of them independently said ask him about poo so it's obviously as the man to discuss poo with well I sung about it as some people may know so um I think that world forever and not many people can say that in their lives. Let's be honest. Now, I wanted to ask you first, because I realised as we were getting ready for this podcast that I didn't know your real name. You're just Dr. Ranj and I had to look up that you actually have a

surname as well. I do. You know, people assume my name must be Ranj Ranj when I say what my name is. What's your name? Ranj? What? Ranj Ranj? No, Ran my name is. What's your name? Ranj what? Ranj Ranj. No Ranj is just my first name. I just go I'm very I'm very cool and chilled out and you know very paediatric about these things. We only go by first name terms but my surname is Singh. Very common Indian surname. Well I have learned something today. There we go. Now speaking of paediatrics I wanted to ask you this why did you decide to specialize in kids out of all of the things you could have specialized in that might have been easier dr ranch well i don't wouldn't say that any of it was easier true true so once upon a time when i

first qualified for medical school i did a year of adult medicine and surgery and it was full-on like proper full-on and I decided after that year that I just wanted a little break and I wasn't sure I was going to go back to medicine I was about to leave really so we might not have had a Dr. Ranch at all yes I may not have been Dr. Ranch at all. That's scary. So I decided, I took some time off to re-evaluate my life choices. And in the meantime, I decided to redecorate my parents' house. So I was in the middle of that. And a couple of months in, I got an interview for a job in paediatrics down in Kingston.

And I thought, do you know what? I always thought I was going to be a GP. And I never thought of doing pediatrics as a job by itself, but I figured it was a six month job. I was like, do you know what? I'll do it. It'll be really helpful if I want to go into general practice anyway. And plus I need a job, you know, this decorating luck suddenly going to go on so long. So yeah, I went for the interview, I got the job and then it kind of just pulled me back in. It was really weird. I'd become quite despondent. quite despondent because the job I was doing when I was doing that year of

adult medicine and surgery didn't feel like it was me. I didn't feel rewarded or satisfied in a really weird way. And I think paediatrics, as soon as I started doing it, I felt, hang on a second, this clicks. I really enjoy this job. I feel like I'm making a massive difference. I feel I get a huge sense of job satisfaction. The patients are amazing. The team are lovely. People who work with kids are lovely. They have to be lovely. And that's why I love it so much. It's just such a great, great place to work. Sure, there are tough days, but everybody has tough days, I think. But I just, I really, really just like working with kids and young people.

But I have to ask, the hard bits with kids have got to be harder than the hard bits with grownups, though. Luckily, the hard bits, the difficult bits with kids are few and far between. So most children, when they get poorly, they will bounce back and get better. That's one of the beauties of working in paediatrics are that children tend to get better a lot quicker than adults do. And even if, you know, you're in a situation where a child may not get better, you can make their life better. You can make their quality of life better.

You can help their family. It's just hugely rewarding what we're able to do. And what I love about working in paediatrics is that people do not think twice about going above and beyond for their patients. Nobody ever wants to see a child or their family suffer. And we will do whatever is in our capability to prevent that happening. staying behind after our 12 hour shifts for another two to three hours, even if it means going to visit, you know, a really poorly child at home or a dying child, possibly even, and making them more comfortable. We will do that. And I'm so proud of the people that I work with because that's the way they think. Well, what I was going to say is, well, A, that's amazing. And I feel very humbled listening to you saying that. But I was going to say, surely the most difficult part of the job isn't the kids. It's us bloody parents.

Aren't we the bane of your life, Dr. Anne? Right. I would say the most challenging part, the most challenging part of my job. That's the doctor word, challenging. So medical, isn't it? I love it uh it's challenging is medical speak for pain in the bum yeah right the the most challenging bit of my job can sometimes be dealing with parents uh and families but usually it's because either like we haven't communicated what's going on well enough so that they understand or run on board, or they're just really, really worried.

And when people are worried, when your emotions are high, we all act differently. We can all act out of character. We may become, you know, a bit more tricky than we normally are. And that's a normal human emotional response when you're panicking or when you're stressed or working at the edges of your capabilities and your reserves. And I totally understand where that comes from. But yeah, I mean, that's, I guess, the most more serious side of it. The other funny bit about parents is that whenever I'm on shift, people are like, well, what happens if, you know, someone recognises you off the telly or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're like, oh, the kids

must go absolutely, you know, berserk. And I'm blah blah they were like oh the kids must go absolutely you know berserk and i'm like no actually the kids are fine they're all right it's the parents it's the parents who are asking for selfies and i have to tell them off and say that's totally inappropriate we can't do that oh man yeah that would be really embarrassing so how do you get from a job in pedediatrics at Kingston to the telly? How does that move on? Totally by accident. Excuse me, I'm choking on my ginger shot. Gin would be better, surely.

No, no, definitely not gin. Ginger and apple shot. I'm one of those people oh you are you are no I thought I'd try it's absolutely vile how did I get it it was completely by accident I did not leave university thinking I want to be on telly you know I left university thinking I wanted to be a GP ended up almost leaving medicine um but I guess I I'd been doing pediatrics for about five years. I was a junior, still a junior doctor, obviously. And I was working full time at the time. And I

just, I got to a point, because the job is so demanding, in so many jobs in healthcare are demanding, because it is really full on. I got to a point where I felt like I needed an outlet, I needed to do something different. I was feeling slightly bogged down, I think maybe. And an opportunity came up just to work with the BBC on some programming that they were doing just as an advisor, sort of telling them kind of topics that would be useful to cover and looking at the content from a medical perspective. And I got involved. I did it for fun, basically. And they said, have you ever thought about being on screen? Like, how comfortable would you feel? And I was like, I don't know about that, but I'll give it a go.

And it just kind of that saying is basically something I've used throughout my entire career now. I'm not sure, but I'll give it a go. And then if it sticks, it sticks. And if it doesn't, it doesn't. And fortunately, most things that I've kind of seemed to have tried seem to have stuck so I've been really lucky and it's just kind of snowballed from that tiny little advisory role that I had when I was 20 something right to a man beloved by toddlers the nationwide but I don't think it's just kids who love you I think parents have come to find a kind of place in their heart for you because i think we associate you with trust and i think we would believe you telling us stuff that we wouldn't believe a hell of a lot of other people telling us i was going to ask you does that come with does that make you feel pressured like you've you've become quite vocal about vaccination for instance yeah and really good you're really brilliant and

we often speak to you for it i know you've worked with us on quite a few articles for it to you know cut through the myths get straight to the point this is rubbish this is what you need to know how have you managed to carve that role out for yourself and do you feel pressured by that to kind of always be on it do you know what I mean I know what you mean yeah so I I've always thought that if I was ever lucky enough to have a public platform of any sort, I would want to use it for good. I would want to use it to help people as much as I could. And it's such a powerful platform to be in the public eye and have a say and people to listen to you. And I think with that kind of role comes a great deal of responsibility and I have to be

responsible. That's fine. I'm human. You know, I will say silly things every now and again, often just for fun. But, you know, I understand that I do have a very, very responsible job and a very responsible role. And it's really important for me to be careful what I say and think about what I say. But I suppose I don't take that weirdly. I don't think of that as a pressure. I think of it as a privilege that people listen to what I say. My aim has always been to be approachable. And if people find me approachable and reliable and they don't mind listening to my annoying voice, then I kind of feel like I've done my job really. And I'm very

proud and honoured to do that. So I guess that leads me on to, there must be certain things that you just wish you could make us parents know when it comes to childhood illnesses. The things that you say a thousand times to worried mums and dads or the things that we just don't love and miss. So what do you wish parents knew about childhood

illnesses? You can tell us off, you can tell us whatever you want, but I'm not going to tell you stuff you wish we knew. Yeah. Even if we don't know what something is, if we tell you, leave it alone, it'll get better, it usually does. So many times I'm like, yeah, we're not really sure exactly what that is, but I can tell you it's not serious and it'll get better. Just leave it alone. That's a very good bit of advice. But this is the thing. There are so many things that can happen when you're poorly. What my job is to tell you whether it's serious or not. And if it's not serious, then usually it gets better by itself, by and large, to some extent. And I'm normally like, well, actually don't worry about

it. It'll get better. Don't panic when your children stop eating when they get poorly because we stop eating when we get poorly the important thing is to drink um and not just drink water please don't just drink water when your kids have got sore throats jelly and ice cream are the best things in the world now i get why you're so popular with kids most infections are caused by viruses and antibiotics don't help even though they may be really really unpleasant um yeah I think that's pretty much and also as parents one thing I will say trust your gut instinct if you have a suspicion that something isn't quite right always get it checked even if that means it's just a bit

of reassurance that you need. But your gut instinct as a parent is probably the single most useful thing that you can do and use. Because if you, and even if you've been to someone and been checked and your child's, and they've reassured you, sent you home, your child's not better, you're like, hang on a second, something still isn't right. We don't mind people just picking up the phone or, or, you know know visiting a healthcare professional and asking i'm not confident i'm not happy something's not right please can you just check i'd much rather people did that than sat at home and panicked oh that makes me go wobbly because that's what i had to do yeah yeah tell your story wend tell your story my little girl

had a williams tumor a cancerous will tumour, and she was seven months old. And I was told for an incredibly long time that it was constipation and the big lump I could feel was poo. See, we're back on poo. And eventually one day I just decided and got in the car and went to A&E. And by that evening we were in Great Ormond Street. So there we go. There's something, isn't there?

Your gut instinct saying something's not right. I know I've been reass some there's something isn't there your gut instincts saying something's not right i know i've been reassured but something isn't right and sometimes you it's it's the just you have to just keep coming back to the thing about um tumors and cancers in children and young people are they are notoriously hard to diagnose because there are so many other things that are not serious at all that look and feel and sound like them those are much more common and it's the ones that keep coming back you're like hang on a second could there be something else going on and that's why it's so important you did what you did which is absolutely the right thing and say hang on something's not right we're going to have to get

this checked again well that's a lesson to everyone i guess isn't it keep you don't mind being pestered don't mind being pestered um as long as there's a reason to be pestered yes so dr ranch you're our first non-parent guest on this podcast and i hope you feel honored you're basically an honorary parent to everyone at netruns um The first question we always ask normally is, have there been any sweat, snot or tears in your house today? I'm going to extend it for you and say, were there any sweat, snot or tears on your ward round today, Dr. Ange? Well, today I was working from home, so there was no ward round round but there was plenty of sweat and tears um we're currently in the middle of a lockdown and and I've just been working from home today and it's just I

sometimes I wish I was at work because I find working from home really stressful and you can't even get away from it because you're at home and home's supposed to be the place that you relax so I I generally tend to do a lot relax. How do you work from home when you're a bit stressed? So I generally tend to do a lot of non-medical stuff from home. So writing, catching up on emails, recording videos, reviewing articles and scripts. What else have I done today? I've done interviews from home as well today.

And sometimes it's actually just quite nice to go to work and have a change of environment. as well today um and sometimes it's actually just quite nice to go to work and get away and have a change of environment um so the sweat and tears have definitely come from that snot no thankfully not that's one good thing I guess about living by yourself is that you don't tend to get as snotty at home as you would normally do but obviously I'm surrounded by snot at work so I like to feel I've got a pretty good immune system so what is the worst you know you're on the ward you're surrounded by sick people if it was me it would be snot I can't deal with snot I can do poo I can do sick can't do snot what can't you do oh I can't do vomit I'll take I'll take snot over vomit any day of the week

even when my own kids throw up I'm'm like, Simon, you deal with that. I can't cope with that. It's that really strong smelling vomit that sometimes just hits you. Dr. Raj, I'm going to faint. I get really faint when we talk about these things. And then you can't help but gag a little bit because it's just a reaction. It happens when it hits the back of your throat. Oh, I'm so glad a people's question'm so glad that makes me feel so much better um what gets me not very

much actually not very i mean do you know what it is baby poo and kid poo i can deal with there's not a problem like it's it's i've been pooed over so many times by babies and kids adult poo i can't deal with that's probably why i'm not cut out to be without medicine yeah it's a very different story very different story when an adult poos on you it's just totally something else oh good lord wendy this is why we're journalists and not doctors this is just one of many reasons we end up not picking. Yeah, there might be a few others as well. So, Dr. Andrew, which of your many hats or roles do you prefer? You've also just written another children's book, haven't you?

I have, I have. So over the years, I've developed many roles. I don't know why. Let's call it a portfolio career. So I started as a doctor, ended up in television, and now ended up as an author, which I mean, I'm pretty stoked about it really. And during the pandemic, an idea for a book was inspired to celebrate the amazing work that key and frontline workers were doing. It's a story of a little girl called Lily who wants to grow up to be a superhero,

like all children do. But the difference is wants to grow up to be a superhero like all children do but the difference is she doesn't want to be a superhero like one that wears a cape and pants on the outside of her trousers she wants to be a real life superhero like the people that she has around her in life so we celebrate carers we talk about teachers we talk about healthcare workers scientists um recycling truck drivers emergency services, all these people that we have around us that we sometimes take for granted, who help keep the world going, help make the world a better place, and especially came to light during the pandemic when we appreciated all of those key and frontline workers. So it's a celebration of them, but it's also a way and a reminder for young

children to inspire them that no matter who they are, where they're from, what their ability may be, they can grow up to be one of those superheroes. They've got characters with disabilities. We've got characters of different ethnic backgrounds. We've got a child with Down syndrome in there. I wanted everyone to be represented as much as possible. I want children to see themselves in this book and think, do you know what? I can be a superhero just like you. And that's the message I want them to take home. Well, I think that that's what 2020 has taught us, isn't it that everybody has a part to play that we're all in this together even if the this is not fun and a bit rubbish we are all in it together and that we have all got to pull together how has 2020 felt for you because obviously you must have had to I mean the number of phone-ins you must have done on this

morning about coronavirus and kids and I mean it just must be quite overwhelming. So it's 2020 has been a really interesting year for the world as a whole. I think, I think a lot has happened this year that will change how we live and behave for a very long time. So the start of the year 2020 looked very different for me and was quite exciting. But obviously, when the pandemic hit, everything got wiped off the slate and everything changed for so many people. So TV sort of changed dramatically and all the telly stuff that I was doing was predominantly done from home and interviews, as you were saying. And then I obviously spent a lot of time in hospital as well because that was important. That's where my passion and my drive comes from. And that's where my place is to be during a pandemic. But it's really interesting because the lockdown has had different effects on me. At the start of lockdown, I actually found it really therapeutic because it

made me stop and slow down. It made me very mindful. I got things done that I'd been putting off for a really long time, which mentally for me was really, really good. I got to spend time at home with myself and just kind of have space to think. That was really, really good for me. The difficult part was then later in lockdown when I realised that I couldn't be as physically active as I'd like to be. And that kind of affected me. And also the frustration of not being able to do the normal things like socialise with people and hugs. I miss hugs so much. Yeah, as it went on, I think it became a bit more difficult, but I was really lucky that I could still work. And I have to acknowledge how privileged I am that I

can still do that. Many people had a much more difficult time. People that were stuck at home and had big families to look after. Obviously, that's a totally different kettle of fish I take my hat off to you parents out there who had to homeschool and work and do everything else all at the same time um I don't know how you did it but I take my hat off I think we're not sure to be honest I'm still not sure how did you do yoga and bake banana bread and look after children. I take you back to the gym. Did you see a reduction in the number? Were you still working as a paediatrician, first of all, or did you move to COVID wards? And if you were still in paediatrics, did you see a reduction in the number of kids coming through the doors? Were people keeping their kids at home? This was really interesting. So I work as an

emergency paediatrician, which means I work in children's A&E. We look after children in our department now up until the age of 18 routinely, sometimes slightly beyond. And obviously we deal with their families as well. I wasn't redeployed because it was much more effective for me to stay in our department and manage things there. We did see a reduction in the number of people coming in. And there was two main reasons for that. Firstly, I guess if there's any silver lining to COVID at all, COVID does not affect children, especially small children, very much in the sense that they don't tend to pick it up. If they do get it, they don't tend to get very sick.

So, you know, less than 2% of cases were children of COVID, which is really reassuring. There were a small number of children that did get really poorly. And that, you know, obviously that was really, really difficult to deal with that. But by and large, coronavirus tends to affect older adults. And that's where the shift went. So obviously that side of things was really busy. The other reason people just don't be scared because when we do take loads of precautions in hospital to make things as safe as possible. But interestingly, one thing I will bring up, this is the third thing I guess, is that because our behaviour changed, what we did actually see is a downturn in the number of particularly infections. So when COVID first

came about, it was bronchiolitis season. And we normally see loads of cases of bronchiolitis due to something called RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus. It's a nightmare for children under the age of two. And cases of that plummeted. And actually, even in Australia, we saw that they had their mildest flu season to date. And that's because cases of flu went down. And we think that the reason that's happening, and even viruses like norovirus have gone down and things like that. The reason that's happening is because our health behaviour has changed. We're very much more hygienic than we used to be.

We're washing our hands. We're being very careful around poorly people. We're keeping ourselves to ourselves, socially distancing. And that has to have an impact on numbers as well that's really interesting so for all of the bad it's had a good impact on some of our health care absolutely there are definitely some things that have uh improved that's not to say they won't come back when things go back to normal eventually but for now because i get the feeling that we're going to be careful for a little while, even after the pandemic is over, we may actually see a reduction in the number of infections overall.

Do you think as well that we'll become more hygienic people? Because we've all really taken on board the message about washing hands and all of that kind of stuff. I think so. I think so. I think we're washing our hands more often now uh we are anti-backing or the hand sanitizing when we're out and about a lot more we're very careful about um being out and about if we're poorly coughing and sneezing people are doing it like they're supposed to do now and cleaning their hands afterwards yeah i'm hoping i'm hoping that our change in behaviour will mean that actually we'll

see a lot less cases of flu in the future and other infections as well. Now, Dr. Rand, you have all this knowledge. I kind of feel you might be wasted just as a honorary parent. Have you got plans to become a parent yourself? Do you think this will happen? Is it something you want? Well, I'm single, so that doesn't obviously exclude you from being a parent yourself do you think this will happen is it something you want well um i'm single so uh that doesn't obviously exclude you from being a parent so it can be it can make things a little bit trickier i think um but that's but i've always said i always said that if i got to an age where i really really thought i you know what i'm ready for kids and i'm still single i would adopt that's not a question about that.

So I'd quite happily be a single parent. But ideally it would be nice to have children with someone. I'm not sure I'm ready for it just yet. I've got two nephews. I'm more than happy looking after them and giving them back. I've got a godchild, more than happy looking after her and giving her back. And I look after kids at work and when they start screaming, I tend to give them back to their parents.

There's a theme for that. There's a theme. I like to be the fun person. I like to be the person that people go to and say, yeah, he's the fun one. Let's go to him. And then when the serious stuff happens, that's when the parents step in. But I'd love to. I'd love to one day, I think, have children of my own.

Who knows? Who knows what's going to happen? Yeah, no one ever knows what's around the corner now yeah tell us tell us a bit more about the fun side of you we got a very nice glimpse of it on Strictly um do you love the kind of the glitz and the glamour that comes with being on tv as much as you love your serious role as a spokesperson on health related topics? So I take my serious side of my job very seriously. And I think it's hugely important that I do that to the best of my ability. But I recognise that we're all human at the end of the day. Even doctors are human. And we like to have fun just like anybody else. I do love the glitz

and the glam that's involved in, let's call it showbiz, but that's a tiny part of it. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that people don't see necessarily. When I'm up at 1am, you know, trying to learn a script or something like that. Yeah, I definitely take the good points and try to enjoy them as best I can. And I've always lived by this notion that, do you know what? All of this could be gone tomorrow. So make the most of it right now. Like, enjoy it. It's okay. Get dressed up, paint your face. You know, I love getting dressed up at Christmas and Halloween and all that kind of stuff and get all involved in that. You know, throw some glitter on it, have fun. You only get one life.

Throw some glitter on it is the motto of strictly sure absolutely and i remember going in going into wardrobe and telling the lovely ladies in there please can you put some more sparkle on my outfit because i kind of feel a little bit underdone oh i love that that would be my sg2 what was the best bit about strictly and what was the best bit about Strictly and what was the worst bit about Strictly? The best bit is genuinely you meet the loveliest people. You honestly like I was in a show with Faye from Steps and Ashley, the pussycat doll. Doesn't get much better than that, Dr. Ranch. Doesn't get any better than that. Come on, people.

And I made some incredible friends. What's not to love? Yeah, exactly. What's not to love um yeah exactly what's not to love and that's on top of the sparkle and the glitz and the glamour and the amazing things you get to do and I got to learn how to dance which I still try to do as much as I can the worst part is people don't realize how stressful it is it takes a huge physical and mental toll on you because it is constant and it is relentless and it it genuinely does it you live breathe eat sleep poop strictly that's all you do but wait dr ranch did you have to quit work while you were doing it like

did you have to take a break how does that, how did you do it? I was still working. But how? How did you do that? In hindsight, in hindsight, if I could have, it would have been very helpful if I could have given up everything else and just concentrated on Strictly for a short period of time. But I couldn't do that. So I was working part time. I work part time in the NHS now, so I was still working part-time so there were days when I would have rehearsals go into work do a night shift and then go into rehearsals again I don't know how you go into training oh my gosh it's really weird what your body will do when um when you're sleep deprived all these hormones kick in and all of a sudden your body does things that you thought wow I didn't think you could do that and that's what Jeanette used to say to me. She was like, gosh, what?

You're really on it today. And I was like, I haven't slept in about 18 hours. Oh, my God. That's why you're on it. I remember the night before the very first show, the very first dance that we did, my goddaughter was born. And I was up until 5 a.m. because I was my best friend's birthing partner. And I was my best friend's birthing partner and I was there and I remember having three hours sleep and then going into the studio and just feeling completely and utterly worn out

and I hadn't even started and that was kind of like the way the rest of the show went for me oh my god I don't know how you do it now I've got an idea for what your next career could be if you needed another one. I think if you sat and wrote a book about all the gossip you've gathered behind the scenes on this morning, I think you could retire, Dr. Ranch. I could retire and be fired at the same time, couldn't I? Yes, yes, but go out with a bang. It might be an enforced retirement. I don't think I know that much gossip that isn't.

But what I mean is you must get to meet, you must get to meet some amazing people because they have so many amazing guests on every episode. Oh my gosh. You must just get to see so many great people. I remember walking down the corridor of this morning and Cyndi Lauper walked past and said hello and I almost fainted.

Wow, that is really cool. And for the young people out there who don't know who Cyndi Lauper is, and said hello and I almost fainted and for the young people out there who don't know who Cindy Lauper is she was really cool in the 80s when I was a kid and she was like basically the equivalent of Lady Gaga let's just say that and Jennifer Hudson came in I fanboyed like crazy Tan France from Queer Eye when he was there I couldn't believe it. He came in and said, oh, it's Dr. Rangin. I'd like to meet him. And I almost laughed.

I was like, how do you know who I am? Like, how could you possibly? I'm like a speck. And he was like, I watched this morning over in the States. Of course I know who you are. And I was like, oh my God, I feel so seen. I've arrived. I've arrived. I've arrived.

I can't believe it. Oh, no. Honestly, through that show, I've got to do so many incredible things. Last year at Halloween, we did a – was it Halloween? No, we did a Wizard of Oz special. It wasn't even Halloween, I don't think. And I got to dress up as the mayor of Munchkinland. And you don't get to do that very often.

Yeah, indeed. So who is the biggest diva phil or holly do you know what they're not none of them i'd love to say that they were if they were they've never done it in front of me and they've always been lovely they've always been lovely aim and ruth philips and holly have all been so sweet to us. So I've never seen any diva-ish behaviour at all. That's good. That's good. Well, that's why it keeps going so long. It's not going to get sacked anytime soon. I'm not going to get sacked anytime soon, did you say? I hope not. Your job would be very nice though.

Well, and I was going to say, on a more serious note, you must have been such a unique support to Phil, having gone through a similar situation to what he's been through recently. Has that been a bit of a brother's bonding experience for you? When it happened, and I still remember waking up and thinking, what's going on all of a sudden? It was a complete surprise to me. Obviously, it was a shock for a lot of people at the time. And I remember thinking, oh, my gosh, I know exactly how he feels. And obviously, he was going through a whirlwind at that time. And genuinely, I really felt for him.

Well, because it was happening so publicly as well. He didn't get, do you know what I mean? It would be bad enough in your private life but let alone publicly absolutely and I remember that day I messaged him and said Phil do you know what I'm sure you've got so many people who are getting in touch and offering support blah blah blah blah but I'm just going to say having been through something really similar I'm not saying I'm in exactly the same situation as you but having been there experience what you're going through and have some you know insight into how you feel and what's happening. If you ever just need to talk or just vent or just scream at someone, then I'm always here.

And he said, you know what? Thank you so much. It means a lot. It's been a crazy however many hours it had been. But yeah, I think sometimes even if you don't use that support just knowing it's there is really really helpful and we've always been supportive of him yeah I think part of the experience of being human is just knowing that someone else understands how you feel and has been through what you're going through that's what's really important isn't it and he's had lots and lots of support from lots of people so um yeah okay so last question i don't know when this is gonna air okay right what last one for me i don't know when this is gonna air but i doubt we'll all have had our coronavirus vaccination before then talk to us about vaccination hit us over the head again

with why vaccination is the most important thing on planet earth dr ranch oh gosh so when you look through history and you look at big advancements in health care and what made a difference to the health of the population there are certain big events that have happened throughout history that have made a huge difference for example sanitation was one of the biggest things that saved lives antibiotics when they came in revolutionized health care saved lives vaccination wasibiotics, when they came in, revolutionised healthcare, saved lives. Vaccination was actually one of the other big things. And I'm not saying that vaccinations are perfect. No medication is perfect. You could have an unexpected side effect and reaction to paracetamol, albeit rare. You know, no medication is perfect, but you've got to look at them on

balance. And on balance, when you look look at vaccinations they save lives and they save livelihoods you've seen examples of it meningitis c yes used to be really prevalent in the uk and i remember we had huge campaigns around looking out for the rash the vaccine came out late 90s um and year 2000 and since then cases of meningitis C dropped dramatically, showing that vaccinations work. That wouldn't have happened due to any other reason. We introduced the meningitis B vaccine quite recently as well. Numbers of cases of that have also gone down. And the best thing about the meningitis B vaccine was it actually, we think, and there's evidence that it helps protect against other types of meningitis. So we should see hopefully other cases going down as

well. And I could go on for ages about how vaccination is important. It's also important that enough of us get vaccinated, not just to protect ourselves, but to protect people that can't be vaccinated, the most vulnerable in society. It's up to us to do that as well. And sure, a lot of people will talk about side effects and risks, but when you look at the numbers, the benefits and the advantages of being vaccinated vastly outweigh the risk of serious side effects. And I think we just need to bear that in mind. If you could say one thing to anti-vaxxers, what would you say, Dr. Rand? There is a lot of anti-vaccine and vaccine hesitant information out there. And I'm a big believer that vaccination is a choice. And I'm

a big believer that vaccination should, you know, you should have all the information. But remember, your choice can only be on the basis of the information you have. And there's so much misinformation out there. There's so much fake news out there. We've seen that time and time again on social media, especially through the pandemic. It is down to experts to sift through that information and tell everybody else what they should and shouldn't listen to. There are very clever people across the world who look at that information and say, right, guys, we're going to sift all of this out and tell you what, the bottom line is that vaccinations actually are good. So we should be listening to that. It's people's job to do that.

Independent organisations look at information about vaccines and tell us what is right and what is not. In the UK, we don't, as medical professionals, we do not get paid to vaccinate people. It doesn't work like that. Some other healthcare systems in other countries, you know, people are like, oh yeah, but you're going to say that because you're being paid by Big Pharma. We don't get paid by Big Pharma to promote vaccines to vaccinate people. We do it genuinely in the UK because it works. And I think that if you've got questions and concerns, please just go to reputable sources of information. Please don't just Google it because the internet is not always fact checked. Yes, what I would say is come to Netmums where we have compiled

a page with the Oxford vaccine project. Yes, that's the people. They're the ones. Exactly. We put every single myth to them. We put every single concern that a parent might have and they've answered all of them. And it is such a brilliant page. I would urge everyone to come and read it. I always say to people for accurate, reliable, honest, independent information on vaccines, check out the Oxford Vaccine Group.

They are amazing. And they're so open and so honest. And that's where you're going to get your facts from. Now, Wendy, you had a last question, didn't you? Well, it's our traditional last question. Oh, we're going to do that one.

OK, do it, do it, do it. Well, I'm not sure it's going to work, but I'm going to ask you anyway, Dr. Ange. So at the end of our podcast, we always ask our guests to imagine that they're tucking Annie and I into bed and singing us their lullaby. Come on, Dr. Ange.

It's a bit weird, and I want wanted to be known on this not me it's nothing to do with me i'm blaming her entirely but if you were to be singing after lullaby what would you be singing imagine you had a poorly baby on the ward and you had to soothe that baby how would you get them i've done this tell us tell us tell us i've actually done this i remember when i used to work in a special care baby unit on night shifts when it got a bit quiet i used to go up to the unit and obviously there'd be babies that'd be awake and they were trying to soothe and i'd say to the nurses i was like you know what i just fancy a little cuddle and i can just let me tell you what let me get them off to sleep and you can go off and do you know your other

various important tasks and a number of different things that you do. And sometimes it was nice and you just sing. You just like rock a baby to sleep. I have a little sing song and it was actually really, really nice. I don't know who it was better for, me or them. What did I used to sing? I can't remember what it was now. Oh, no, I can.

I can. The thing is, I can picture the moment as well what would i i was usually an adele song because adele adele songs are just lovely old choice they are lovely feel my love well feel my obviously not originally by adele but a make you feel my love was always a great great lullaby get a kid to sleep this is good advice for parents sing adele's song i was gonna say adele is the route to kids sleeping she's amazing oh it's been lovely to talk to you dr range thank you it's been fabulous thank you so much dr range and keep doing what you're doing we all need you the nation needs you i will try thank you very much don't let us down