For Aisha Malik, medicine has never been confined to clinic walls. A GP by training and a humanitarian at heart, her career has spanned everything from leading asylum health services in the UK to providing medical cover on high-altitude treks in the mountains of Pakistan.
Born into a multicultural family, Aisha’s early exposure to refugee and asylum seeker communities shaped her path.
“My mum was an immigrant in the 70s and a GP who always worked in deprived areas,”
she recalls.
“A lot of the people around us were refugees. It wasn’t alien to me.”
That familiarity became a calling during the pandemic, when she was asked to step in as clinical lead for a hotel housing 250 asylum seekers. What began as an emergency measure evolved into years of frontline leadership in one of the most complex and under-recognised areas of UK healthcare.
“It’s medicine and health inequality on steroids, you have to be mentally and emotionally tough, but it makes you a better doctor, and a better human.”
Aisha’s work hasn’t stopped at patient care. She’s been a vocal advocate for equality and diversity, teaching clinicians how to navigate conversations about race and discrimination with honesty and courage. Winning a national award for her contribution to reducing health inequalities was a career highlight, but for her, the real reward is the resilience and courage she witnesses in her patients every day.
Looking to reconnect with a like-minded community, Aisha discovered World Extreme Medicine. She attended the WEM Conference, later completing the Humanitarian Medicine and Expedition & Wilderness Medicine courses.
“I think I just needed people who think outside the box, the courses gave me skills I didn’t have, and the confidence to use them.”
Those skills quickly found a home. After approaching Islamic Relief, Aisha became their expedition doctor, providing medical leadership on treks in remote regions of Pakistan.
From managing severe altitude sickness in areas with no mountain rescue, to building robust risk assessments for large donor groups, her WEM training has been critical.
“Having that framework meant I could step in and say, ‘This is what’s safe.’ It was invaluable.”
Now a member of WEM’s teaching faculty, Aisha brings her experience in both UK-based and overseas humanitarian work to course participants from all over the world.
“It’s humbling to teach alongside such expertise, and to learn from the people you’re teaching,”
Whether in a seafront hotel in Blackpool or on a glacier in Gilgit-Baltistan, Aisha’s drive is the same: to be where she’s needed most.
“I like big, gnarly problems. I think I’m pretty good at this work, and I’m okay saying that now. It feels like where I’m meant to be.”
