Born in Scotland by Swedish parents but raised in Sweden, Cecilia returned to the UK in 1982 at the age of 19. After working in hospitality and administration and raising a family, she became a teaching assistant at a local primary school, where she is also a governor. Her main role at school is to support troubled children with their emotional needs. This can be through group work on social skills or friendship problems, as well as one to one sessions helping children understand their feelings and actions, while being a sympathetic listener. The mental well-being of our children is very important to Cecilia, as is education as a way of bettering their lives. Being from a multi cultural background herself, Cecilia is passionate about having access to ones cultural roots and heritage to foster a feeling of belonging. Cecilia enjoys the arts and literature of both the UK and Sweden. Nature is important to her and she is happiest when spending time outdoors walking, swimming and horse riding with her family and dogs.
Tomasz Mazur has graduated from Munich University with a degree in Cultural Anthropology having also previously completed a degree in Social Sciences at Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny in Krakow, Poland. He currently teaches at an Institute for children with hearing impairment in Straubing in Germany also works as a translator and an interpreter. Since his early twenties, he has travelled the world and spent extended periods of time in more than 100 countries across all five continents, concentrating his passion and interest on countries in Asia and Latin America studying their languages, traditions and religions. Tomasz is an author of several press articles concerning the non-western world. His particular area of interest and expertise is intercultural communication. Both in Poland and in Germany he has led many workshops and lectured widely on this subject. In the nineties, he set up a publishing house specialising in editing tourist guides. In addition to writing a tourist guide about Munich and Turkey, he has published two further books: one of them, (released in 2003) explores a culture of India and in 2006 was nominated for a prestigious Beata Pawlak award. In 2013, he published a collection of essays based on experiences gathered during his travels over the years entitled "Anatomy of existence" In 2017, he was awarded a distinction for his life’s work in the field of intercultural dialogue. He is a member of Polish Writers Association. He would like to offer his extensive experience, knowledge of languages and understanding of cultural backgrounds to MEDyARTE Foundation in aspects of research, choice of appropriate locations for projects and then their management.
Malgorzata
Malgorzata (Gosia) Trubshaw was born in Warsaw, Poland but has lived in England since 1989. Having graduated as a doctor from St George’s Hospital Medical School, University of London in 1995, she now works as a General Practitioner but additionally has developed a passionate interest and expertise in neurology. For over fifteen years she has been practicing as a Neurology Specialist in the field of Epilepsy and Headaches, working in various hospitals and community clinics in London and Surrey and collaborating with local Clinical Commissioning Groups in designing plans for improvement of local community neurology care.
Malgorzata has always identified strongly with her Polish background and cultural heritage and was a co-founder of a successful and vibrant volunteer run library at the largest Polish School in London under the name of Marii Sklodowskiej-Curie.
Throughout her life, she has travelled to the furthest parts of the world admiring the versatility of cultures and the beauty of nature, at the same time finding inequality around every corner. Her dream is to help people to live with dignity regardless of birthplace and believes that no matter how impossible a task appears, full and committed application of determination and effort will allow it to be achieved. Malgorzata also believes that even one person can make a significant difference to the world’s future: the MEDyARTE foundation was born out of this belief.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away