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‘Put your blinders on, put your head down, and do the work’: Sharifa Al-Sudairi on her journey to becoming Saudi Arabia’s first female alpine skier

Saba Ahmadzadeh Noughani
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‘Put your blinders on, put your head down, and do the work’: Sharifa Al-Sudairi on her journey to becoming Saudi Arabia’s first female alpine skier

Saudi Arabia, a country renowned for its desert landscapes and scorching temperatures, seems an unlikely starting point for an alpine skier. Yet Sharifa Al-Sudairi grew up in snow-free Jeddah and pursued one of the most snow-dependent sports. Perhaps even more compelling, she started competing in her mid-30s, an age when many athletes consider retirement.

Al-Sudairi is Saudi Arabia’s first female alpine skier, competing internationally as her country undergoes a period of rapid social and sporting change.

“Skiing was not part of my childhood in terms of seriously doing this competitively,” she says. Instead, she grew up near the beach and remembers participating in water sports such as sailing, surfing and “just trying every sport under the sun”.

Al-Sudairi tells me: “I was in every sports club in my school.” She lists tennis, basketball, and “probably football at some point”. Yet while Al-Sudairi’s family encouraged her to do sports, she notes that “it was kind of something you do on the side”. Skiing first began as a “casual hobby” when her parents took her and her sisters on ski holidays in Switzerland: “Once a year we would go on these holidays.” She laughs as she recalls being “more excited about the hot chocolates”.

Her family’s interest in skiing began after a friend of her father recommended that they visit a beautiful spot in Switzerland, which they enjoyed and kept returning to. She describes her father as an “adventurous traveller”, the type of person “that spins the globe and says this is where we’re going to travel to in the summer”. So, skiing in Switzerland was something “we were going to try as a family, and that’s how we got introduced to it”.

At the age of 16, she moved to Switzerland for boarding school, bringing her closer to the Swiss Alps and giving her the opportunity to “really focus on skiing”. But even then, she did not ever see herself becoming a professional athlete. The sport remained a “casual thing in the back of my head; there was nothing more to it, at this point of my life”. What she did have, however, was what she calls a “competitive athletic bug”, but her professional life would first take her in a different direction.

After studying fine arts in London and continuing with a Master’s in Art and Business, Al-Sudairi worked as a gallerist, later becoming associate director at London’s Pace Gallery. All the while, skiing remained a passion pursued separately from work. This changed in the early 2020s, “when my country was going through all these significant changes”. She recalls feeling intrigued when she heard Saudi Arabia was starting a snow sports federation: “I said, ‘Wait, that’s something I know how to do really well.’”

It was a moment in her life when she felt she “really wanted to give back to my country”. Joining the federation, she says, was “my way of giving back and I get to do my sport professionally”. She told herself: “I don’t want to look back when I’m 80 and say ‘I wish I did this because that was the moment’.” Despite all the reasons that could have stopped her, she knew: “This was the chance.”

The sudden change came with many sacrifices. Al-Sudairi tells me she had to miss a lot of events and personal occasions with her friends and family, but “I did that kind of happily, because it really gave me so much fulfilment, you know, doing what I did”. While Al-Sudairi had to cut out some of the social aspects of her life to prioritise her athletic goals, she has no regrets because her friends were “always with me along the journey”.

For instance, when she had to turn down dinner invitations and late-night plans because protecting her sleep was important to maintaining her training and performance, her friends “understood that if I couldn’t make it for dinner, then they would come and see me for lunch”.

Her decision to take on skiing professionally at Olympic level in her mid-thirties stemmed from “just being inspired by what my country was going through”. Her journey representing Saudi Arabia began in 2022 when she took the leap and registered with the Saudi Winter Sports Federation. Her early races came at Ski Dubai, where she competed in regional indoor ski events that helped launch her competitive career. She remembers the support she received from her Jeddah community, which she says encouraged her throughout the process: “I felt like I went to the Olympics. The love that I got from my community was incredible.”

Competing in the sport competitively and nationally was, at first, unfamiliar territory. “I kind of didn’t know what I was doing”, she admits. Yet her presence alone marked a historic first for Saudi Arabia.

When asked whether there were moments when skiing felt impossible, her answer was immediate: “Right from the start it did.” Her decision to change careers and train as a professional athlete, at an age when many athletes were considering retirement, “did not make sense to many”. Someone even suggested that she take a desk job with the ski federation instead of skiing, but Al-Sudairi persisted and continued training. She recalls there being many moments where she “could have easily left skiing” but there was always “something inside me, a voice in me that said just go”.

The conventional route into elite sport is typically mapped out from childhood, starting with specialist coaching, participating in junior competitions, then national teams after years of progression. Yet Al-Sudairi’s journey was not planned as such, and growing up in Saudi Arabia, skiing was hardly the obvious career choice: “I think our way of getting into sports, as females in Saudi, was quite unique to other nations.”

Growing up, Al-Sudairi recalls being very aware that there are misconceptions about women in Saudi Arabia and, more broadly, the Middle East, but believes that “maybe at some point you don’t blame [people for having] the misconceptions”. For Al-Sudairi, the changes she has witnessed in Saudi Arabia are particularly significant for women. She describes Saudi women as “leaders”. Women in Saudi Arabia are working across sectors from some of the region’s largest companies to ambassadorial roles or, like herself, at the forefront of women’s sport.

Particularly in the past eight years, Saudi women have “slowly broken those barriers, probably in our way” and “kind of just proven to the rest of the world that women here are capable”. Even if not every woman was given these opportunities as a child, the next generation of Saudi women will certainly “know a world where they’re doing the exact same thing as any girl or woman anywhere in the world”.

But barriers remain. At the moment, Al-Sudairi believes the biggest challenge that young Saudi girls face in skiing is the lack of proximity to snow: “These sports need to be really accessible, and at the moment, it is a trip that you have to take.” She also considers family support and encouragement as factors in a young athlete’s success. “It makes it easier”, she says, believing that first and foremost, one’s journey pursuing their sport “has to be a family affair, because you have to commit a lot of time to it”.

Regarding her own challenges with sports, Al-Sudairi has also had her share of injuries. In 2023, during the ski season, she tore a ligament, which caused her to miss the summer training block. In December the following year, she broke her arm while training in Italy: “In these moments, you stop, and you think, is this worth it?” But she recalls that “even on the hospital bed when I broke my arm, it made me think, ‘I want to get back and show that I can do more’. I love the grind. I think I thrive off of this feeling.”

Her results have since reflected that determination. In February 2025, she was part of Saudi Arabia’s debut team at the ninth Asian Winter Games in Harbin and Yabuli, China, where she competed in the women’s slalom and served as a flagbearer at the opening ceremony. The following month, in Kolašin, Montenegro, she secured two second-place finishes across a series of International Ski and Snowboarding Federation (FIS) and national championship races. In March 2026, she returned to Kolašin and placed fourth in the National Championships slalom and fifth in the National Junior Championships slalom. She also competed in the National Junior Championships slalom events in Kopaonik, Serbia, that month.

However, being the first woman to achieve something was never her primary motivation. “I knew I had to put in double the work”, she says, and so she “wasn’t sitting there being focused on the fact that I was the first”. Representing Saudi Arabia as the first female alpine skier is an “incredible honour”, but equally, she “wasn’t quick to go and do it because ‘you might be the first’”. What mattered more to her was that she “just wanted to go out and ski”.

Yet she recognises the significance that being the first can have for others: “I think what matters to people who look like me is to know that there is someone from your background.” She adds that “it does make a big difference to them”. Despite the significant impact representation can have, Al-Sudairi grew up having no Saudi female alpine skier role models to look up to. Now, she has become the first herself. For a young girl considering an unconventional path, her advice is clear: “I would say, put your blinders on, put your head down and do the work. Don’t listen to the noise. There’s going to be a lot of it, but just be prepared to put in the work.”

She says sports, or any ambition for that matter, “has to consume your life, because every aspect of your life plays a role in whatever it is, something unconventional, challenging, difficult or not the norm that you are pursuing. Just keep going at it, even when it doesn’t make sense.”

In defence of consent training

Madeline Gillett
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In defence of consent training

CW: sexual violence

It is often well-intentioned, stereotypically ‘progressive’ people who argue against the need for Freshers’ Week consent training, or at least find it obsolete. This includes even those who are the most committed to dismantling rape culture, as well as those who are aware that sexual violence is horrific; something that they would never dream of committing. They might think those who really need the training won’t be receptive anyway, so what’s the point? Those who oppose rape culture might feel comfortable that they would never jeopardise someone else’s bodily autonomy, and think that those who could are a separate class of citizen; no amount of healthy discussion can be expected to save them, especially not an hour’s worth while hungover on a Wednesday afternoon. However, even thinking this unconsciously contributes towards a dangerous culture of complacency, ignoring the very nature of sociopolitical progress and how it manifests across time. 

During Freshers’ Week consent training, I heard people say that choking is a normal, expected part of sex. I also heard the term ‘normal sex’ batted around a lot, without any real attempt to actually explain what this was, or what exactly people are consenting to when engaging in it. In reality, ‘normal sex’ is a vast umbrella term for an array of acts. 

These oversimplifications are not inherently sinister, nor were they spoken by people whom I’d deem deeply ignorant and apathetic towards consent, such as the bigoted types you’d expect to see in a TV drama that stages sexual violence. What these assumptions do signify is the necessity to rid our minds of sociosexual scripts.

Sociosexual script theory was first coined by the sociologists John Gagnon and William Simon in 1973. It refers to the internalisation of societal norms, which can dictate how people act in sexual situations: often sex is informed by expectations of what is ‘normal’, as well as, or even more so than, preference. The theory becomes especially pertinent when thinking about gender roles and sexuality in sexual encounters. It’s not out of the ordinary to feel that you need to do something in a ‘mainstream’ or ‘conventional’ way, nor does it make you a bad person. What this can do, however, is make you feel pressured to enjoy certain types of sex more so than others, and make it unclear what is being consented to when sex is brought up. For example, sex is not necessarily just penis-in-vagina (PIV), even when it is between a cisgender man and woman. For one person, this might be the norm and to be expected. For the other, it might be deeply uncomfortable, or even not physically possible. 

Sociosexual scripts engender a harmful hierarchy of acts, deeming some less ‘serious’ than others, and therefore requiring less informed consent. What might be considered foreplay for one person can be the main event for the other, and so what one person is happy to rush into might be deeply vulnerable for the other. Sociosexual scripts are also inherently heteronormative: when we assume that ‘real sex’ is penetrative, we exclude what might be the norm for two cisgender sapphic women, for example, as well as pressuring cisgender, heterosexual people to define safe sex in a specific way. 

Choking and sexual strangulation are clear examples of this. Studies consistently show that there are significant risks and harms associated with this act, but what used to be considered a kink has recently made its way into the mainstream sexual script, with over one third of 16-25 year olds reporting being choked at least once during consensual sex in a study done in December 2024. There is a sense that this is both because of an uncritical approach to what is manifest in pornography – a disregard for its chauvinistic stagings and glorification of power dynamics – and also a desire to not be perceived as ‘kink shaming’. While there is merit in warranting people freedom for sexual self-exploration, it is essential that this rising trend is accompanied by an active dialogue about the dangers of strangulation, and the recent spike in choking-related deaths. In order to avoid situations such as these, kinks are often accompanied by ongoing conversations about boundaries, safety, and comprehensive aftercare, because of the awareness that they fall outside the bounds of the ‘mainstream’. The very act of shifting something from the category of kink to ‘normal’ sex requires reflection. When we make something a standard that was once physically threatening, and still is for many, people may assume consent, when open dialogue is required to foster a safe and comforting environment. Consent training, in this light, can be viewed as the absolutely essential counterpart to mainstream pornography, which engenders certain expectations if consumed uncritically. 

Consent training becomes more pertinent than ever when we dispel ‘the monster myth’. This refers to the notion that sexual assaulters are inherently monstrous people, detectably evil and with no capacity to be perceived as normal people. It breeds complacency: people think that they are immune to violating people’s consent if they do not associate with this stereotypical ‘evil’ or disregard for their sexual partners’ welfare. Breaches of consent also result from lapsed communication and a socially-informed assumption of preference, which manifests as selfishness or entitlement. Sexual violence can be perpetrated by close friends, in seemingly mundane environments. Understanding this is also key to understanding why survivors might not fit the script that society expects them to: they might remain friends with the perpetrator, or not even realise that what occurred was a breach of consent until much later. After the recent discourse about the ‘Cornell 7’ and people discrediting Jane Doe for remaining close to her abusers soon after her assault, it is more relevant now than ever before that we dismantle all expectations for survivors, and understand how common it is that sexual violence does not necessarily manifest in a violent or explicit manner. 

Consent is not only breached because the perpetrator does not care about the other person or is acting with wholly malicious intent. It can happen because of a lapse in communication, an incorrect assumption, or a misunderstanding between the parties involved about what sex entails. Complacency and misinterpreting consent as a case of monster versus human show a lack of nuance or ongoing reflection, both of which are key in understanding how to achieve attuned consent. This is why consent training is still important – the people who are receptive to it are still the people who need it. 

As co-president of ItHappensHere, an anti-sexual violence campaign for Oxford University students, I call for all colleges to have consistent and comprehensive consent training, including for postgraduates. It is essential that we foster a space where survivors know that their concerns are cared for, that their experiences count, and that there are people who are committed to creating an environment of informed consent. They deserve to know that the culture of complacency is being dismantled, one hour-long session at a time. 

SHVSS

ithappenshere.co.uk

survivorspace.org.uk [Oxford based]

solacesarc.org.uk

New scholarship created for Afghan women at Oxford

Freiderikos Vassos
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New scholarship created for Afghan women at Oxford

One scholarship will be awarded to a woman of Afghan descent to study at the University of Oxford each year in a new endowment from the Weidenfeld-Hoffman Trust. The scholarship, announced this month, will cover postgraduate tuition, travel costs, accommodation, and general living costs.

Eligible students must have already met the admission requirements for postgraduate study at Oxford and be of first- or second-generation Afghan descent. The money will endow the scholarship permanently, allowing it to continue supporting a female Afghan postgraduate student each year.

The scholarship results from a £2.5 million donation from Shabana Basij-Rasikh, an Afghan educationalist. Basij-Rasikh was herself a recipient of a scholarship from the Weidenfeld-Hoffman Trust,  which allowed her to study for an MSc in Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government.

Afghanistan remains the only country to formally disallow access to education for girls beyond primary school, with an estimated 2.4 million girls barred from secondary education as of 2026. More than five years since the Taliban’s second takeover of Afghanistan, higher education has more broadly been curtailed. Female enrolment in the nation’s universities reached zero by 2024, while male enrolment nearly halved between 2019 and 2024. 

Ongoing visa restrictions from the Home Office mean that applications from Afghan nationals made outside the UK will automatically be rejected. Consequently, women in Afghanistan who are not dual citizens will not be able to apply for a student visa and therefore cannot take up a place to study at the University of Oxford. Basij-Rasikh, who funded the scholarship, has raised concerns over the UK’s visa brake policy toward Afghanistan.

Introduced in March 2026, the Home Office has stated that the visa brake is temporary and will be reviewed regularly, but said it will only cease when the “UK government considers it appropriate to do so”. However, a University spokesperson told Cherwell: “The visa brake is based only on the main nationality you give on your application form. Applicants who have a valid visa for the UK are still able to apply for an in-country visa extension or another visa route in-country if eligible.”

The scholarship is scheduled to support its first beneficiary starting from September 2027.

Additional reporting by Jeremy Azzopardi.

Former L’Oreal CEO donates £30m for new Worcester College library

Kiera O'Carroll
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Former L’Oreal CEO donates £30m for new Worcester College library

Worcester College has submitted a  planning application for a new £30 million library, funded entirely by a donation from alumnus and former CEO of L’Oréal Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones. This “transformational gift”, which totals nearly half of the College’s endowment, is the largest donation to the college to date. 

The building’s architecture will echo the current 18th-century library while complementing the award-winning Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre at the rear of the college. Plans include a two-storey glass-and-Clipsham-stone building with silent study zones and an outdoor terrace surrounded by Worcester’s orchards. It will be located where the car park and greenhouse currently reside. 

Architects Wilmotte & Associés were chosen as part of Worcester’s international architectural competition in 2025. Designers of the inside of the Louvre, Google’s office building in King’s Cross, and the UN House for West Africa, they have also designed universities like SciencesPo. 

Pioneer of the “Because you’re worth it” slogan, Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones hopes the building “will help inspire generations of students to work comfortably and creatively”. 

In a statement to Cherwell,  Worcester called the donation “transformational” and “unprecedented”. It will be used  “to fund the entire cost of the project – from feasibility and planning exercises to design and construction”.

Worcester has confirmed that there will be no disruption to the college’s study facilities during the construction. “The current Lower Library will remain in operation as the home of Worcester’s internationally significant special collections, as well as a reading room open to all members of the College,” the College added. The functions of the Upper Library, which currently houses modern lending collections, will transfer to the new building. There are currently no plans to repurpose the vacated space. 

The current, Grade-I listed library no longer meets accessible, sustainable, and academic standards. The transfer of Worcester’s main library will mean the development of a new greenhouse and car park with added bike sheds. 

A student told Cherwell that the announcement of the plans was a relief, stating that after the project’s announcement in 2023, students had concerns that their accommodation would be knocked down. 

Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracey has sent her “heartfelt thanks” on behalf of the entire University for this gift. Public consultation on the building is available until October 30th.

University style guide criticised by international students 

Miriam Ilderton
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University style guide criticised by international students 

A style guide issued by the University of Oxford advises staff to use “plain English” to avoid confusing international students. The style guide is designed to ensure clear communication from University staff. 

In the guide, which was published earlier this year, the University suggested that staff “be mindful of idioms that may not be familiar to international readers”. Phrases and idioms to avoid include “learn the ropes” and “find your feet”.

This guidance is intended to benefit international students. A University spokesperson told Cherwell: “As a global university with staff and students from around the world, we write for a wide international audience. The guide provides practical advice for written University communications, from punctuation to choosing language that readers will readily understand.” International students make up 43% of Oxford students overall and 60% of graduate students.

While recognising the advice’s intention, some international students have criticised the guide as “a bit overdone”. Speaking with Cherwell, one student said that “idioms [sic] are integral parts of the English language. It makes Oxford, Oxford.” 

Another student, Juniper Chan, told Cherwell: “It’s kind of anti-integration, anti-naturalisation… to baby people. When I first got to the UK, I didn’t get a lot of stuff, but you have to kind of pick it up.”

Students have acknowledged the difficulties language barriers create at university. Chan told Cherwell: “There is a certain level of shame that comes with it [but Oxford] is a very international place.You could always ask your friends for help.” 

Oxford requires non-native English speakers to prove their proficiency when they apply, requesting evidence of C1 or C2 level ability on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The British Council defines C1 as the ability to “understand a wide range of more difficult, longer texts” and to  “recognise implicit meanings”, a skill that should enable students to understand the idioms the University advises against. 

The guidance has created controversy online. For example, Lord Young of the Free Speech Union said: “One of the reasons international students come to Oxford is so that they can immerse themselves in our culture and master colloquial English.” 

The University also added that its style guide is non-proscriptive. A University spokesperson told Cherwell: “Its writing guidance is advisory and supports staff in exercising their own judgement about the language they use and the audience they are writing for.”

St Anne’s to close nursery called a ‘lifeline’ for women at Oxford

Stanley Arlidge
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St Anne’s to close nursery called a ‘lifeline’ for women at Oxford

St Anne’s College will close its day nursery, ending an institution that was pivotal in supporting women students and academics at the University of Oxford.  

The nursery will shut its doors on 18th December following a decision by the College’s Trustees. Parents were informed of the change last week, giving them just two months to find alternative provision for their children. 

A group of St Anne’s fellows founded the day nursery in 1963 for their own newborn children. At the time, it was the only college nursery at the University and was designed to let female fellows manage work and childcare. 

Baroness Ruth Deech, a former student, fellow, and principal at Anne’s who enrolled her child in the nursery, previously wrote that: “To be a woman don in a women’s college, with a full-time nursery and a well-stocked law library was, relatively speaking, very heaven.” Partly down to Deech’s efforts, five college nurseries now operate alongside the University’s own childcare services. All offer priority to parents associated with the specific college or the University as a whole. 

Baroness Deech told Cherwell that she “heard the news with a heavy heart”, describing the nursery as a “lifeline” for working parents. Having discussed the closure with the college, the Baroness blamed “creeping over-regulation” for making it unaffordable to run small nurseries. She highlighted the Oxford city traffic filters as the “last straw” preventing staff from reaching the city centre. 

Current nursery parents expressed dismay at the sudden closure of the institution. Speaking to Cherwell, one parent described feeling “let down” by the decision: “Permanent closure was never mentioned as a possibility or even crossed our minds, given St Anne’s pride in operating Oxford’s first college nursery.” 

Cherwell understands the decision to close comes after staffing difficulties at the nursery, which have reduced service to three days a week. An affected parent told Cherwell that there has been a “collapse in the standard of governance at the nursery” just three years after it was rated outstanding by Ofsted. 

Since the announcement of the nursery’s closure, several parents have written a letter to the College’s Governing Body to “express our [their] deep sadness, frustration and disbelief at the decision to close the nursery at such short notice”. The letter says that “the nursery is not simply an ancillary commercial service” but “embodies the College’s pioneering commitment to women’s education and equality of opportunity”.

Parents also raised concerns about the impact of having to move their children to another nursery. One parent expressed their worry that they will not be able to find an alternative place for their child in the two months before the nursery’s closure. They told Cherwell: “In these areas of life, the best support you can have is a long notice period because it takes so long to secure a place.” Waiting lists at nurseries in the UK can range from immediate availability to two years. 

Consequently, the affected parents have asked the College to postpone the nursery’s closure until the end of the academic year to give families and staff “a reasonable opportunity to make alternative arrangements”. The parents have also started a change.org petition that, at the time of print, has received over 120 signatures. 

In a statement to  Cherwell, St Anne’s “strongly refute[d]” any suggestion that there has been a collapse in the standard of governance at the University. It added that the nursery has undergone “several challenging years” to secure increased regulation and maintain the service amid greater staffing costs and challenges in recruiting senior staff. The College also told Cherwell that the proportion of students at the nursery with ties to college has recently decreased.

Regarding the immediacy of the announcement, they state that: “The decision to permanently close the nursery on the usual Christmas closure date was not taken lightly nor was it based on any single factor.”

While the parents recognise the recent challenges faced by the College in running the nursery, they describe the closure as a “defeatist” response that “unnecessarily severs the college from its proud history”. 

All the parents who spoke to Cherwell criticised the level of support offered by the College in light of the sudden closure.  One parent told Cherwell they had received “virtually none at all”, while another characterised St Anne’s support as signposting the University’s Childcare Services “at most”. 

St Anne’s told Cherwell that “our immediate priority is to support affected children, families and staff through the transition”. They are “working closely” with the Childcare Services team with this goal in mind. 

Regarding  the importance of the nursery to the College’s history, the College states that: “The nursery has been and will remain an important and proud part of the history of this College.” 

One parent, who previously taught Oxford University history, is dissatisfied with this response. “As a female academic, I have seen many of my peers struggle with the precarity of early career contracts.

“I would argue that there is something fundamentally patriarchal about imagining the ideal university without making provision for young children at its core.” 

Live DJs and projected brainwaves light up Oxford’s first ‘biohacking party’

Mair Andrews
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Live DJs and projected brainwaves light up Oxford’s first ‘biohacking party’

Oxford Town Hall hosted the city’s first “biohacking party” last Friday. The event, organised by Oxford University’s Biohacking Society, aimed to “bring biohacking out of the lecture theatre” and encourage students to “engage with technologies and ideas around human performance and longevity”.

The party included wearable EEGs, usually used to detect epilepsy and brain injury, to show the impact of socialising and dance on brain activity. Wearers could see their brain waves hooked up onscreen above a live DJ booth. 

Another activity included a headset ‘game’ that used a headband to track “neurofeedback” and make a ball rise or fall depending on the user’s concentration. Some partygoers sampled “nootropic drinks” to help with concentration and brain power. There was also the opportunity to measure glucose and blood oxygen levels. Following recent ailments sustained at a sports social the evening before the event, Cherwell’s correspondent struggled with more demanding cognitive tests. 

Lulu Frisson, a second-year undergraduate at Lincoln College who spoke to Cherwell at the event, dubbed it “the best event I’ll ever go to at Oxford”. She added that she came away with a “genuinely greater interest in the world of biohacking and self-improvement”.

Biohacking Society formed in 2024 with the intention to bring together students and organisations to promote health, longevity, and human performance. This particular event was organised to “experiment with a very different format to combine science and technology with nightlife”.

“Given the growing interest in longevity, wearables, and self-optimisation among students”, the society’s founder, Marie Kruth, told Cherwell that she hopes to “build a community around biohacking”. 

The society, which has over 1,000 members, aims to promote “scientifically based information” in the face of “lots of false information” surrounding biohacking. Events focus on practical engagement with biohacking and improving mental well-being, including hypnotherapy. Sponsors include leading biotech businesses UndoAge, an age-reversing coffee producer, and Growing Life, a leading researcher into longevity.  

After completing her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology and Business, Kruth now studies digital engineering and focuses her research on regenerative medicine. Upon arriving in Oxford, she felt that the city “was a bit behind” in engaging with biohacking and exploring how we can “optimise ourselves”.

The society is interested in monitoring cognitive performance and improving “healthspan”, the amount of time we are healthy in our lives. Kruth was inspired by conversations with people who suffer from chronic diseases, wondering “what they could have done to avoid it or push it back”.

Previous events include talks led by Oxford professors specialising in psychedelic research, ethics philosophers, and a ‘biohacking on a budget’ series led by health consultants. 

Later this term, they are hosting a talk with American endurance runner Hillary Allen and a keynote speech on sleep by neuroscience specialist Professor Russell Foster. 

Kruth is interested in approaching health with a “prevention mindset”, particularly optimising sleep. Lifestyle changes, she explains, include using a glucose monitor to track responses to different foods and a red-light panel when ill to help with mitochondria production. Unfortunately for Cherwell’s representative, no red-light panel was on offer during the party. 

Listen to the latest episode of Cherwell Spoken to hear the full interview with Kruth. 

Additional reporting by Stanley Arlidge. 

Oxford University wins at local climate awards

Orla McMahon
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Oxford University wins at local climate awards

Oxford University Raff Lab and Wadham College were among the winners at this year’s Oxford Climate Awards. 

The event awards individuals, businesses, and institutions in the Oxford area for their environmental work. This year’s awards, which were given at Oxford Town Hall earlier this month, were hosted by Oxford City Council in partnership with The Oxford Times, Oxford Mail, and digital marketing company LocaliQ.

Individuals or groups can be nominated for climate in up to twelve categories, including the Innovation in Climate Action, Sustainable School of the Year, and Youth Climate Action Awards. Nominations were assessed by a panel of independent judges.  

Raff Lab, part of the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, won the Innovation in Climate Action Award and was also named Overall Winner for its efforts to incorporate sustainable practices into its work. 

Dr Saroj Saurya, winner of the Climate Action Champion Award and laboratory manager of the Raff Lab, told Cherwell: “We were absolutely delighted and genuinely surprised when the Raff Lab was announced as the Overall Winner of the Oxford Climate Awards. It is a wonderful recognition of years of hard work, persistence and collaboration.

“These awards are not just about one laboratory or individual. They reflect the growing culture of environmental sustainability across the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, made possible through the encouragement and support of our Head of Department, Professor Matthew Freeman, the dedication of Green Group volunteers, and the contributions of our technical and facilities teams and colleagues across the department.”

Saurya is chair of the Dunn School Green Group, which aims to promote environmental sustainability within the Dunn School and the wider community.

Saurya told Cherwell: “One of our priorities is to develop a circular-economy approach in which laboratory plastics that cannot be reused are collected, processed and potentially turned into new laboratory products, rather than being discarded as waste.”

Wadham won the Sustainable Further Education School of the Year award. 

Director of Sustainability Frances Lloyd told Cherwell: “There has been a significant effort across the college to ensure Wadham plays its part in developing and demonstrating solutions to reduce its climate impact while contributing actively to nature recovery. Recognition like this demonstrates our commitment and determination to make a difference and will hopefully inspire others.”

Oxford researchers find potential prostate cancer risk more than a decade before diagnosis

Jeremy Azzopardi
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Oxford researchers find potential prostate cancer risk more than a decade before diagnosis

Certain blood proteins are associated with future risk of developing prostate cancer, research led by Oxford University has found. Twelve proteins were tied to prostate cancer diagnoses more than 15 years after blood samples were collected.

The investigation is the largest population-based study to date of blood proteins and future prostate cancer risk, with an emphasis on aggressive diseases. The researchers assessed more than 6,000 blood proteins and examined traits linked to the later development of prostate cancer. Researchers tracked participants for around 16 years.

Dr Zhe Huang, the leading author of the study and a postdoctoral epidemiologist at Oxford Population Health, told Cherwell: “Our findings suggest that biological changes linked to prostate cancer may be detectable in the blood many years before diagnosis, and some proteins may play a causal role in its development. This could eventually open up new opportunities for earlier detection and prevention.” He added that these findings are at the research stage and do not yet change clinical practice.

Published in European Urology, the collaborative research was led by Oxford Population Health and part-funded by Cancer Research UK. Oxford researchers, including DPhil student Trishna Desai, contributed to the study design, data analysis, interpretation, and manuscript preparation.

Over 50,000 cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed each year, making the disease the most common form of cancer for men in the UK.  Dr Iain Foulkes, Executive Director of Research and Innovation at Cancer Research UK, told Cherwell: “Prostate cancer is one of the biggest cancer killers of men, yet we still don’t fully understand why some tumours grow slowly and may never cause harm, while others become aggressive and life-threatening. Understanding what drives these differences is crucial if we are to identify those most at risk and ultimately save more lives.”

Next steps include validating the findings in larger-scale investigations and analysing the underlying biological mechanisms through experimental study. Researchers at the University’s Prostate Cancer Aetiology and Prevention Programme (PCAP), funded by Cancer Research UK, will also explore whether these findings could lead to better ways of predicting or preventing prostate cancer. Foulkes told Cherwell: “While there is more work to do, discoveries like this could pave the way for better ways to identify men at risk and, ultimately, prevent aggressive prostate cancer before it develops.”

At least 12,000 men die from prostate cancer each year in the UK, with an estimated 1 in 8 men diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. A 2023 report by Prostate Cancer UK highlights a substantial North-South divide in relation to prostate cancer diagnosis, with men in Scotland and England’s North far more likely to be diagnosed at too late a stage to be cured. 

Lack of awareness of the risks of prostate cancer are a key driver of mortality. A survey study published in 2024 shows that less than half of men are sufficiently informed of prostate cancer’s symptoms. Huang told Cherwell: “University health campaigns, public lectures and student-led events could all play a valuable role in raising awareness. Although prostate cancer mainly affects older men, it is important for younger people to understand the disease and its risk factors, particularly age, family history and genetic susceptibility.”

Reuben College becomes Oxford’s first postgraduate College of Sanctuary

Ilya Rosenbaum
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Reuben College becomes Oxford’s first postgraduate College of Sanctuary

Reuben has joined Mansfield and Somerville Colleges as Oxford’s third College of Sanctuary, the first postgraduate college to do so. More than ten Sanctuary Scholars have been supported by Reuben since 2021 through the University’s Refugee Academic Futures and Crisis Scholarship programmes. These scholarships cover living costs and tuition fees, with further funding raised by the college’s student community. 

The College of Sanctuary status recognises colleges for their ongoing commitment to welcomeness, safety, and inclusivity for those in unstable situations seeking education. Reuben is also the first college to be recognised by the Oxford University’s own Sanctuary status process.

Reuben’s commitment to being sanctuary-friendly began with its founding President, Professor Lord Tarassenko, who devised the University’s undergraduate scholarship scheme for Ukrainian refugees within weeks of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Lord Tarassenko himself is the grandson of a refugee from eastern Ukraine. He told Cherwell: “We are immensely proud to receive College of Sanctuary status. From Reuben’s foundation, we have sought to build a community in which people from all backgrounds feel that they can belong and flourish.”

Sanctuary scholar Viktoria Podvorchanska, who has completed an MSc in Translational Health Sciences, explained that the environment of “community and care” reminded her that “life was continuing”. Yangdon Tenzing, a sanctuary scholar who completed her MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies last year, described the Graduate Common Room space as one of her favourite aspects of the College. Tenzing said her opportunity at Oxford has helped her navigate career uncertainty. 

Reuben has also formalised its support for Oxford Phoenix Rising Football Club, which provides free football sessions to refugees and asylum seekers in Oxford.  

The recognition of Reuben’s status comes at a time when refugee and international students’ places at Oxford have been put into question. Since the Home Office’s visa brake policy in March, which prevented nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, and Sudan from obtaining student visas, at least 15 students with Oxford offers were unable to take up their place at the University. 

In response to the visa brake, Mansfield and Somerville issued a joint statement: “Conflating [students] with wider migration challenges is both unfair and misguided.”

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