The no-nonsense longevity expert who prefers eating croissants to biohacking

VICKI TURK meets Dr Sabine Donnai, a woman taking a healthier approach to longevity

- VICKI TURK

Think “longevity” and a particular type of person comes to mind. A biohacker, covered in smart devices tracking their every move. Probably a man. Possibly specifically Bryan Johnson, the American tech entrepreneur who has developed a $2 million-a-year protocol in pursuit of his one goal: “Don’t die.”

It’s this association that has led Dr Sabine Donnai, founder and chief executive of private health clinic Viavi, to dislike the term “longevity”— even though that’s exactly what her practice focuses on. “For me, longevity is about prevention, in the main, of chronic diseases and functional decline,” she tells me in a room at Viavi’s clinic, which occupies one of the grand terraces on Devonshire Place, near Harley Street. Her take may not be as sexy, but it does sound eminently reasonable. She likes to frame it as “healthy longevity”— “because what’s the point of living long unless you have all your functionality there?”

Donnai’s interest in longevity began when she qualified as a doctor in her native Belgium and felt disillusioned with how much medical practice focused on matching symptoms of ill health with diagnoses and then treatments. Wouldn’t it make more sense to keep people healthy in the first place? She travelled to different countries to learn about approaches to healthcare, and moved to the UK 28 years ago. She held various roles, including at Bupa and Nuffield Health, before setting up Viavi in 2009, offering bespoke plans to live healthier for longer. Her elite client list includes the likes of Chris Rokos, founder of Rokos Capital Management, and Edmund Reed, managing partner of law firm Travers Smith.

Bespoke treatment