Dr Luke Treharne is both a medical doctor and professional rugby player, best known as the captain of the Wales Rugby Sevens team. Balancing life on and off the pitch, Luke has represented Wales and Team GB around the world — including at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games — while also training and working within the NHS.

Passionate about the intersection of performance, mental health, and medicine, Luke speaks openly about the pressures of elite sport and clinical life, offering a unique perspective on resilience, leadership, and wellbeing.

The topics covered in this podcast include:

• 🏉 Dual Identity: How Luke balances life as both a doctor and international rugby sevens captain, and what he’s learned from living between two high-pressure worlds.
• 🧠 Resilience & Mindset: Lessons from elite performance environments — handling pressure, failure, and self-doubt.
• 🏥 Medicine Meets Sport: The crossover between teamwork in medicine and rugby, and how both demand communication, trust, and calm under stress.
• 💬 Mental Health in Sport: Luke’s reflections on mental wellbeing, burnout, and identity beyond the jersey or job title.
• 🚀 Purpose & Leadership: How Luke defines success, purpose, and leadership, and what drives him both on the field and in clinical practice.

🎙️This episode was presented by You Okay, Doc? Patron, Former England Rugby 7's Captain and Silver medalist Olympian Tom Mitchell.

💜 A big thank you to our sponsor, Pastest for supporting this episode.

👉 Don’t forget to download, rate, subscribe, and share to spread the word and support those who take care of us.

In the episode, Dr Kiran Bains joins Tom Mitchell in a rich conversation on redefining work-life balance, protecting your mental health as a doctor and building a sustainable and fulfilling career in medicine. Tom and Kiran navigate an expanse of insights based upon real life experiences, into making tangible changes to your working life so you can create the work-life balance you desire. Kiran talks candidly about her diagnosis of OCD and her multifaceted career - spanning across medical education, practicing as a paediatric speciality doctor and mental health advocacy, particularly for women and mothers in healthcare.

Key topics include:

• Courageous change
• Benefits of your sharing your worries
• Your identity as a human & as a doctor
• Your value beyond your profession.

Dr Kiran Bains is a Paediatric Specialty Doctor and the MRCPCH Programme Director at Pastest, where she leads the development of innovative learning resources that support paediatric trainees across the globe.

A University of Nottingham graduate with a Master’s in Medical Education, Kiran is passionate about improving access to high-quality medical training and fostering supportive learning environments. Her work bridges clinical practice and education, empowering the next generation of doctors to thrive both professionally and personally.

Beyond her academic and clinical roles, Kiran is a strong advocate for mental health awareness and wellbeing in medicine, particularly for women and mothers in healthcare. She speaks openly about the realities of balancing medical careers with personal wellbeing, encouraging healthcare professionals to seek support and challenge the stigma surrounding mental health.

Thoughtful, grounded, and inspiring, Dr Kiran Bains brings a powerful perspective to conversations about resilience, identity, and compassion in modern medicine.

🎙️This episode was presented by You Okay, Doc? Patron, Former England Rugby 7's Captain and Silver medalist Olympian Tom Mitchell.

💜 A big thank you to our sponsor, Pastest for supporting this episode.

👉 Don’t forget to download, rate, subscribe, and share to spread the word and support those who take care of us.

Trigger warning — Suicide & Miscarriage

This episode discusses suicide, miscarriage, grief and trauma. Please take care while listening.

In this one-off special for Suicide Awareness Month, we bring the much-missed Liz Sizer back into the room. Tom Mitchell is joined by Kate Beed, Liz’s sister, for a candid, moving conversation about Liz’s life, career and the circumstances that led to her tragic death by suicide in 2016.

Kate and Tom trace Liz’s story from her physical presence and determination — a 6ft-1 anaesthetic trainee who moved into a male-dominated specialty and later became a consultant at King’s — to the pressures and hidden traumas that accompanied life as a doctor. They reflect on how doctors face repeated exposure to distressing events, how desensitisation can become a coping mechanism, and how that coping, left unsupported, can become dangerously isolating.

Kate speaks openly about her work with Mind following Liz’s death and shares practical guidance on recognising emotional pain in colleagues — what to look out for, how to ask the right questions, and how to offer support. The conversation also touches on miscarriage, grief, generational shifts in how mental health is handled, and the tension between the drive to appear resilient and the real need for headspace and sustainable support.

This episode is a heartfelt exploration of professional pressures, personal trauma, and the consequences of not having the right structures in place to care for those who care for others. It’s a respectful tribute to Liz and a call to action for better duty of care in healthcare.

What we discuss / Key themes

• Liz Sizer’s life, career and legacy
• The pressures of working in medicine: burnout, trauma exposure and desensitisation
• Miscarriage, grief and their impact on mental health
• How to spot if a colleague is in emotional pain and what to do next
• The experience of grieving a colleague and surviving unanswered questions after suicide

If this episode affects you — support & resources (UK)

If you are in immediate danger or feel you may harm yourself, call 999.

• Samaritans: 116 123 (anytime) — samaritans.org
• Mind: mind.org.uk
• NHS mental health services: nhs.uk/mental-health

If you’re outside the UK, please consult your local emergency services and mental health organisations.

About Kate Beed

After a successful career spanning over 20 years in central government delivering diversity and inclusion programmes as well as large scale change programmes, Kate experienced the trauma of losing her sister, Dr Liz Sizer, to suicide. They were close in a way that sisters often are sharing special memories and fun times. Kate was completely devasted by Liz’s suicide.

Kate’s need to know more about how Liz got into such a dark place, led her to join Cambridgeshire Peterborough and South Lincolnshire Mind to develop a suicide mitigation training programme for GPs and other primary care staff. The programme was recognised nationally when it was awarded a ‘This Can Happen’ award in 2020 for the Best Mental Health Initiative in the Workplace. Kate was instrumental in influencing system-wide thinking across both primary and secondary care in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, as well as working hard to engage the wider community to raise awareness of suicide.

🎙️This episode was presented by You Okay, Doc? Patron, Former England Rugby 7's Captain and Silver medalist Olympian Tom Mitchell.

💜 A big thank you to our sponsor, Pastest for supporting this episode.

👉 Don’t forget to download, rate, subscribe, and share to spread the word and support those who take care of us.