Health campaigner joins Jamie, Stella and Boris (From Your Local Guardian)

Health campaigner joins Jamie, Stella and Boris

5:20pm Thursday 9th October 2008 in

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Health campaigner Geoff Martin has made it in to the Evening Standard list of the 1,000 most influential Londoners for the second year running.

He is this year’s elite list along with Gordon Brown, David Cameron, London Mayor Boris Johnson, Roman Abramovich, Mervyn King the governor of the Bank of England, Stella McCartney and Jamie Oliver.

Mr Martin, a major campaigner to save both Epsom Hospital and St Helier as fully functioning district hospitals, was elected to the top 1,000 in the health category, one of 22 different sections in the list.

Mr Martin, who lives in Gander Green Lane, Sutton, is head of campaigns of Health Emergency and is in the forefront of battles to save NHS services throughout the UK.

“I was described as a thorn in the side of NHS officialdom which is not a title that I am going to recoil from,” he said.

“It made the point about the work I do against NHS bureaucracy and the excessive use of management consultants.

“I was well pleased to be nominated and I think it shows that there is a real need for people like us doing the work that we do but I didn’t really expect it because I am not in the echelons of the movers and shakers.

“The list was heavily loaded to people from the centre, north and west London – the posher parts of town – so I feel I was flying the flag for the south London suburbs.”

On Tuesday Mr Martin attended a celebration event held at the Wallace Collection in London along with other nominees.

Other people in the top 1,000 include Simon Cowell, Lord Darzi, Sir Philip Green the billionaire owner of Topshop and Bhs, and Lord Chief Justice Sir Igor Judge.