Suzanne Ruggles

Suzanne originally studied business, finance and law before setting up her own London based design company. Her many commissions included Hollywood actors, royalty, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Royal College of Music and Birmingham Philharmonic Hall.

Following diagnosis of SLE (also known as Lupus) an autoimmune illness she began studying the science of mind-body medicine. She undertook two trips to Harvard Medical School to study the Relaxation Response and Positive Psychology. She enrolled at Birkbeck, University of London to study Health Psychology, before in her final year switching to a master’s degree at the guidance of her Professor. She graduated with a Master of Science (Health Sciences) from St George’s Hospital Medical School, University of London in 2014.

She holds qualifications in energy medicine (Plexus bio-energy), Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Reflexology and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). She has a long term practice and interest in chi kung, mindfulness, and relaxation techniques, and deeply held interest in nutrition.

Professionally, in 2001 she was commissioned to set up St George’s Hospital’s first ever integrated therapy programme for haematology and bone marrow transplantation, including the UK’s first project dedicated to support people with life-limiting genetic pain condition sickle cell disease (SCD), for which she received the prestigious St George’s Hospital Exceptional Award in 2005, nominated by consultant haematologist for sickle cell, Dr David Bevan.

In 2006 she set up the Hospital’s paediatric integrated therapy project – the first of its kind in the UK.

She established Full Circle’s second project in 2018 for University Hospitals Sussex in Brighton cancer service.  In 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic she led the development of Full Circle’s Wellbeing Hub which attracted leading authorities in wellbeing, receiving over 9,000 visits in its first year. The Wellbeing Hub became an immediate ‘trusted resource’ shared peer-to-peer by healthcare professionals during the pandemic and as a valued resource for their shielded patients. The following year, in 2021 Suzanne developed a team to host the first ever conference on Nutrition in Sickle Cell reaching a global audience. Nutrition For Sickle Cell Patients

She founded the charity following a near death experience in 2003 brought about by a rare form of meningitis, with the aim of ‘raising funds to seed-develop pioneering projects for hospitals to deliver and evaluate integrated therapies for very sick children and adults.’ She initially set up Full Circle in St George’s Hospital Charity until 2015, when Full Circle became an independent charity to widen its reach and ability to share its knowledge with other hospitals.

She is an accomplished speaker and has been invited to speak at schools and has lectured widely including Nursing and Radiology Faculties at Kingston University and St George’s Medical School; National and International conferences and the All-Party-Parliamentary Group for Integrated Healthcare, Westminster.

She has written a memoir Coming Full Circle: A Journey to the edge of life and back (Balboa Press, part of the Hay House Publishing Co, United States).

https://www.suzanne-ruggles.com