Ethan Ennals

Ethan Ennals demonstrated his exceptional skills with a year of revelatory health stories from across the NHS. His eye for an original story is combined with the ability to explain complex medical concepts with authority and clarity. His exclusive news stories are well-sourced and hard-hitting. Above all, his work places ordinary individuals at the heart of the story. 

 The first entry had a life-threatening urgency to it. A chilling exposé found cancer patients are missing out on life-saving drugs because ‘overstretched’ NHS tumour-testing laboratories are taking months to return crucial results. Ethan worked hard to win the trust of an NHS whistleblower who agreed to go public with the shocking story. The article also included the moving story of mother-of-three Rebecca Condie, 40, who was forced to wait 10 weeks to find out whether she could begin a crucial cancer treatment. 

The sensitive and shocking article gained significant attention online. The second piece focused on a controversial NHS topic - physician associates. Ethan revealed that, following a series of life-threatening misdiagnoses, GP chiefs were calling for a crackdown on the use of the medics who only receive two years’ training. He also brought to light the tragic story of Norman Jopling, 79, a retired music journalist who was left fighting for his life after a physician associate mistook the signs of a brain bleed for a headache. This authoritative exclusive successfully tackled a complex topic, offering readers clear insight into a problem which has led to high-profile schisms in the health service. 

The story was widely shared by healthcare workers and patients alike. The third article shone light on a scandalous issue which until then had gone unreported. Councils are failing to teach sign language to deaf children and leaving them unable to fully communicate with their families and teachers. This touching story revealed the plight of hundreds of families struggling to be heard by a bureaucratic system. One woman shared how she was told she would need to sell her home to pay for her son’s sign language lessons. Ethan took a complicated but original story and turned it into an easily understood, empathetic tale. 

The article was widely shared online and also provoked the reaction of politicians including ex-cabinet minister Chloe Smith who criticised local councils for their lack of action. These articles show a hard-working writer who consistently finds eye-catching exclusives. Ethan combines his impressive NHS contact book and nose for a good story with humane sympathy for his subjects and top-level writing to create high-class public interest journalism.