I am delighted and honoured to begin my term as BSG President and want to begin by thanking my predecessor Professor Andy Veitch for his superb work for the BSG over many years. Andy served the BSG in many roles most recently as President. We are hugely grateful to him, particularly his legacy in leading the way internationally on climate change and sustainability.  I would also like to thank all those who have stepped down from BSG roles this summer – we are truly grateful for all your hard work.

I believe that the BSG is a superb organisation, supported by many dedicated volunteers and a highly professional office team, all working to deliver the best for GI and hepatology patients. The recent BSG LIVE conference had record attendance and was sold out for the first time ever. It demonstrated the enthusiasm and vigour within our speciality, and I am hugely positive about our future.

I am excited to begin my term as President with a dynamic and diverse executive team and look forward to working with them and our new President-Elect, Dr Harriet Gordon. The BSG relies on the dedication of so many people who give up their time to serve our society. Without your efforts we could not deliver high quality conferences, world renowned guidelines, superb training, innovative research and much more – THANK YOU.

The BSG is a charity and in my role, I am committed to driving forward BSG’s charitable objectives. One of the projects I am particularly excited about is ‘Project 90’, led by Dr Bev Oates.  The BSG will be 90 years old in 2027 and in the three-year run up to this anniversary, we plan to celebrate this milestone by providing opportunities for our members to ignite new passion and interest in their gastroenterology and hepatology careers.

Project 90 will provide a wide range of opportunities including regional BSG events, career development, leadership and management support, nursing education, and travelling fellowships. We are looking for members to help develop these areas further and an advert is now open for leads for these areas with applications closing at midnight on 11th September. I encourage you to consider applying to be part of this once in a generation project. You will be hearing much more about Project 90 in the coming months.

I hope that many of you have had a good break this summer. Sadly, over the summer, we have seen the repugnant sight of overt racism on our UK streets. Racism has no place anywhere and I am sure all of our BSG members were appalled by these scenes. The BSG thrives on being an inclusive and diverse organisation. We welcome and celebrate our diversity and we oppose racism in any form.

Lastly - BSG leadership are committed to listening to our members and as an organisation we are looking at ways to better capture our member’s views. We will report back further on this but in the meantime, I welcome your comments and feedback via [email protected]. I would also like to remind you that you can contact our elected councillors (who represent our members to Council) via [email protected].

Best wishes,

Prof Colin Rees

BSG President