Doctor nature

TV doctor Amir Khan has recently become president of the RSPB, but what does the role entail? Annabel Ross meets him to find out - and discovers how closely our health is related to time spent in nature

- Annabel Ross

It's easy to see why the RSPB chose Dr Amir Khan as their new president. He is so enthusiastic about being out in nature, and if he can manage it on a regular basis then so can we - he has more commitments than anyone I've ever met. Dr Khan is first and foremost a full-time GP, but also manages to be a regular guest on two daytime television programmes, he has published a book, he lectures at Leeds and Bradford universities and is vice-president of the Wildlife Trusts, as well as various other roles in supporting British wildlife.

It's clear that Khan is passionate about the health benefits of being out in nature and wants everyone to be able to experience it, whether you live in the inner city or the countryside. We recently met for a walk around Golden Acre Park, not far from his home in Leeds.

Where did your love of nature come from?

"It came from my dad, who's not with us anymore. He was really interested in wildlife. We didn't have a garden growing up, we grew up in the centre of Bradford. He was a bus driver, so he worked full time as well. But when he came home, the only television programmes he watched were nature documentaries. And that kind of spurred me on to watch them as well. Then he got poorly when I was quite young. We used to, when he was well enough, go out to parks like this and look at nature. But when he wasn't well enough, I would go out and then tell him about what I'd seen. And that connection was really nice - it was really special. When he passed away, it was something I liked to continue because it reminded me of him and it still does.

"But actually, when going into medicine and learning about the science of the benefits of spending time in nature, that kind of galvanised all of that."