Founded by patient, Vanessa Carter, a survivor of a highly-resistant infection and active in advocacy since 2013, The AMR Narrative is a UK-registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), established in 2022 to build advocacy capacity, raise awareness and promote global community engagement in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
As patients, consumers, pet owners, parents and caregivers, we play a crucial role in advocating for the responsible use of antimicrobial medicines. By protecting these medicines across human and animal health, the environment and food sectors, we can help ensure a more sustainable future, especially for those most vulnerable to untreatable infections.
Develop public and patient capacity to encourage participation and advocacy through ongoing programmes, mentorship, tools and resources.
Promote patient and public understanding about AMR through access to information, education and awareness raising both locally and globally.
Build a global community and provide a platform for patients and the public to engage in dialogues and other related opportunities related to AMR.
Microbes are part of nature and live all around us. Some of them even live harmoniously inside our bodies, but every now and again a bad one can cause an infection. Some infections are resistant to the antimicrobial medicines designed to treat them. Microbes, also known as germs, include bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites.
treat bacterial infections
treat fungal infections
treat viral infections
treat parasitic infections
On the 6th of May 2025, clinicians, researchers, and industry leaders came together to explore one of the most important (and often overlooked) parts of diagnostic innovation: how to successfully adopt and implement new infection tests in real-world NHS settings. This event marked the fourth meeting in the Moving Forward in Infection Diagnostics series, co-hosted
Our Founder and Executive Director, Vanessa Carter, had the privilege of attending an exclusive pre-screening of AMR – Dying to Change the World on March 11, 2025. Hosted by the Fleming Initiative at the Curzon Theatre in Bloomsbury, London, the event showcased the compelling feature-length documentary on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by filmmaker Alex Tweddle, made
On February 26th 2025, at the BEAM Alliance 9th AMR Conference in Basel, Switzerland, our Chair, Dr Francesca Chiara, participated in a panel discussion titled “Communicating on AMR, a Simple Matter of Wording?” She joined Kate Grailey (Fleming Initiative), Becky McCall (University College London) and Diane Shader Smith (Patient advocate and author) in exploring the nuances
Photo: 2016 My name is Hayley Bailey. I’m 46, and I live in Johannesburg, South Africa. I’m actually a relatively private person and didn’t have any intention of publicly sharing my story, however, I recently realised that speaking up could empower others facing similar challenges. My journey of “medical hell” began in 2007. I suffered
My name is Bhakti Chavan and I am an AMR patient survivor from India. As I neared the completion of my master’s degree in biotechnology at the age of 23 in 2017, I encountered a troubling development: gastrointestinal issues. Concerned by this, my father accompanied me to a gastroenterologist, who diagnosed irritable bowel syndrome. Thanks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79QTsFAs0qo My name is Leticia Batista. I’m 28 years old and was born in Franca, a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. I graduated as a Physical Therapist in 2016 and moved to São Paulo in 2017 to work in a public hospital (Unified Health System – SUS). In February 2018, at 22
Advocacy plays a crucial role towards increasing awareness about the escalating threat of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and the pressing need to take measures to prevent it. Advocacy also serves to educate policymakers, healthcare professionals, and the general public about the significance of using antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines responsibly. Raising our voices and creating awareness may also help to promote changes in prescribing practices, improved infection prevention and control measures, and increased funding for research and development. Furthermore, advocacy can encourage discussions around reducing the misuse of antimicrobials in food, animals, and the environment which is a significant contributor to the problem of AMR.
Organisations we have partnered or shared our experience with:
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Chris Shaffer was a music, special education teacher, and high school principal for 45 years. At the end of his educational career, he was thrust into the world of AMR infections when a number of abdominal surgeries left him with an E-coli infection which failed to respond to antibiotics. After doctors in the USA left him with little hope for a cure, diminishing health, and a bleak prognosis, he set out on his own.
Chris found success in phage therapy at the Eliava Phage Therapy Center in Tbilisi, Georgia. With phage therapy giving Chris his life back, he has dedicated his retirement years to advocating for and helping raise awareness of phage therapy used for AMR infections. He tells the story of his phage journey in a book titled, Finding Phage: How I Partnered with a Friendly Virus to Cure My Deadly Bacterial Superinfection. His website, phagetherpyusa.com helps others learn to understand the healing power of phage therapy.
Demi is an Associate Scientific Director at a medical communications agency, with a background in microbiology and a longstanding focus on antimicrobial resistance. She holds an MSc in Microbiology, where she first became interested in the global challenge of resistance and the need to bring scientific understanding to wider audiences.
Demi’s career has centred on a simple but powerful belief: that how we communicate science matters. Her work focuses on making complex data clear, engaging, and accessible – whether for healthcare professionals, policy makers, or the patients most affected by infection and resistance. She has contributed to a wide range of AMR-focused projects, including educational programmes, congress communications and stewardship initiatives.
A central thread in Demi’s work is the importance of the patient voice. She is passionate about making sure real-world experiences of treatment failure, recurrent infections, and the anxiety surrounding resistance are not lost in the data. She believes that listening to patients and involving them meaningfully is essential for shaping more effective, human-centred responses to AMR.
Demi is also a strong advocate of the One Health approach, recognising AMR as a complex, interconnected issue that spans human health, animal health, and the environment. She is particularly drawn to efforts that move beyond siloed thinking and focus on practical, joined-up solutions.
In 2025, Demi joined The AMR Narrative as an Independent Advisor, where she supports the charity’s mission to centre communication, community, and inclusion in the global AMR response.
Outside of work, she is a Girlguiding unit leader and a qualified yoga teacher. These roles reflect her commitment to care, learning, and creating supportive spaces for others.
Andrea has worked in health communications and campaigning for 3 decades. She is committed to fighting AMR through timely and appropriate communications globally,.
Andrea set up Skating Panda, the creative social and environmental impact consultancy, over a decade ago and drives its impact and growth. Focused on original and lasting public interest communications as well as issue strategy and advocacy, the Panda team has a track record of prompting tipping points in the status quo that drive better social and planetary outcomes.
Andrea’s combination of commercial marketing and development experience with deep issue knowledge have been sought by decision-makers at global summits, corporate and NGO board members, and have enabled her to set up multi-million fundraising platforms and push through policies that change and save lives.
Andrea is Vice Chair of mothers2mothers, the world’s largest employer of women living with HIV, and a Board Director of Maymessy, a food poverty social enterprise.
A lifelong advocate for gender equality, she played a key role in establishing the UK’s Women’s Equality Party.
Professor Esmita Charani is a pharmacist and researcher investigating how we use antibiotics in different cultural and social contexts. She works with teams in the UK, India, and South Africa to develop research programmes investigating all aspects of antimicrobial resistance in human populations with a focus in hospital settings.
She has experience in communicating her research with patients and the public through various media including animations, blogs, and educational videos.
