Having been committed to a career in forensic pathology since the tender age of 13, Dr Richard Shepherd, Britain's eminent pathologist, shared his wisdom whilst talking to students at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College in Darlington. 

Dr Shepherd has performed more than 23,000 autopsies throughout his career, putting him in a perfect position to share his professional skills and experiences, honed during his work on high-profile cases, including the Princess Diana Inquiry, the Hungerford Massacre and 9/11.

Having written a well-received memoir, Unnatural Causes, Dr Shepherd and his work have been thrust into the public spotlight. Apparently, this shift from behind the curtain to staunchly in the public eye has been "quite interesting", though Dr Shepherd is thankful that he had essentially retired before his books were published. 

"Writing my books was a great experience, but as a pathologist, I have to do stuff behind the scenes, such as address juries, without seeming like something special."

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"But it is nice to be a role model - I've been on tour, and have had a few young people each show coming to me to say they are pursuing medicine or pathology after reading my book."

Dr Shepherd believes that talking to students about difficult subjects - like forensic pathology and death in general - is of the utmost importance. 

"Society has changed in the way that we approach death. Still, when a tragedy hits a family they can be left bereft of understanding, so talking about death is important.

"Our discomfort with discussions of death will change gradually, but we can't push societal change too fast. Nevertheless, our approach to it is shifting. It's also important to tell groups of students like this about the options out there - I hope that it gets them stimulated and interested in the field."

It seems as though young people are nothing but interested in Dr Shepherd's tales - not put off by his gory presentation of crime scene pictures, he receives all kinds of questions from young people, from the perennially relevant "what career advice do you have for me?", to the conspiratorially tabloidesque "was Diana pregnant when she died?", to the brazen "how much do you earn and do you donate any to charity?"

There is nothing like a story, all guts and gore, to get teenagers invested in a lecture at school. 

Lucy Carter,  a criminology student at QE, said: "I love Dr Shepherd’s work and I found his talk absolutely fascinating. I want to work as a forensic psychologist, and have already applied to do this at Leeds Trinity University, so this talk was really enlightening."

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Dealing with a tome of traumatic cases, it is not surprising that some of Dr Shepherd's cases have haunted him. In 2014, he was signed off of work for six months whilst suffering from PTSD. 

He explained: "Whilst working, you have a kind of professional 'shield' you put up so that you can do your job. At the end of the day, those cases that stuck with me got buried and pushed down rather than properly managed. 

"I am trying to get my junior colleagues to see a psychologist yearly - so they can discuss those cases with someone without having to make an appointment. It is just the best medical practice."

In a rapidly changing world, the field of forensic pathology seems to be developing just as fast. He said: "Cases tend to follow trends. We were very involved in Covid a few years ago, and even though they were natural deaths, we were deeply involved in finding out about the new disease and helping to come up with treatments, such as the use of steroids."

Despite (or perhaps because) Dr Shepherd's daily encounters with death, he assured me he is not really concerned about his own passing. 

"I don't worry about it at all - it will happen when it happens, but if I could make a request, I'd like it to be pain minimized, if not pain-free."

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