Committees

Mr Khout was appointed as a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast surgeon in 2013. He joined Nottingham Breast Institute in 2015 and introduced the Oncoplastic Forum (OPF) to streamline oncoplastic and reconstruction pathway. 

Mr Khout has special interest in using new technologies to facilitate decision making in oncoplastic surgery. He is also interested in minimising inequality in accessing oncoplastic procedures. 

I trained in Nottingham, Bristol, Manchester and Yorkshire. I have been a consultant surgeon at the James Paget Hospital since 2005.  I was an MRCS examiner and Chair of the Court at the time of significant changes to the format. For 5 years, I was Divisional Director which gave me a broader understanding of the relationship between service provision and training. More recently, I have been Chair of the oncoplastic breast Training Interface group, a member of the SAC in General Surgery and appointed as Training Programme Director for the East of England. I am currently a QA surgeon. 

Research interests include Improving outcomes in breast reconstruction; Surgical trials methodology; Feasibility studies using mixed (qualitative and quantative) methods; Systematic reviews. Other roles include Chair of the Mammary Fold Academic & Research Collaborative (MFAC) and Trainee member of the NCRI Breast Clinical Studies Group.

Sarah Clark has been a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast & Skin Surgeon at Poole Hospital since 2014. She was awarded an MD in 2009 for her work on immunohistochemical profiling of DCIS. The Poole breast unit takes part in multiple national clinical trials in both  the neoadjuvant and adjuvant setting, including recently the POETIC, SERD2 and iBRA 1 and 2 trials and are currently recruiting to Primetime, POSNOC, i-BRA, Nostra and PARTNER.  She has a particular research interest in Nipple discharge and  implant based reconstruction and has set up the NUND Study which is soon to launch. 

Rajiv is a consultant surgeon in the Nightingale & Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Centre, at Wythenshawe Hospital, which is recognised as one of the largest Breast symptomatic and screening units in the UK. This is a recognised centre of excellence, providing complex oncoplastic breast surgery and leading on new technology. His specialist surgical training, which spanned over 10 years, includes a TIG Oncoplastic fellowship in Manchester, and an International Fellowship (Breast, Endocrine and Melanoma) in Melbourne, Australia.

Beatrix Elsberger has been a Consultant Breast Surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary since 2018.She undertook her surgical training  in Scotland and completed a fellowship at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. She was awarded a PhD in 2011 (University of Glasgow) investigating the role of Src kinase in Breast cancer. She has recently been awarded a three-year NRS academic fellowship to pursue her research interests comprising clinical trials and translational biomarker research. 

Toral is a Senior Clinical Research Fellow in Clinical Epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford and Consultant Surgeon at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She is the lead principal investigator on several research projects in the UK and India. Her portfolio of work is focused on her main interests which are the epidemiology of breast cancer in women of different ethnicities in the UK and the early diagnosis of cancer as a global health concern. 

Surgical trainee in the West of Scotland, currently in post as an Associate Surgical Speciality Lead in Breast Surgery with the ABS. I am fairly new to the research platform but enjoying the learning process and due to commence an Out of Programme Research Post in August 2023 completing an MD in the relationship between breast cancer post-operative complications, and breast cancer recurrence/survival.

Kit is an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Breast Surgery at the University of Bristol. She is chair of the Mammary Fold Academic & Research Collaborative and Royal College of Surgeons Associate Surgical Specialty Lead (aSSL) for Breast Surgery. She combines research activities with her final years of surgical training in the Severn region. Kit's research interests are to improve outcomes for breast surgery patients, through designing, developing and conducting high quality collaborative clinical research answering questions of importance to both patients and professionals. Recent studies include Diamond, RESTORE C-19 and performing the data analysis for the James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership for Breast Surgery.

A senior research nurse in breast cancer for the last 20 years, Sue currently works as a Post-Doc Research Fellow in Leeds; having completed a PhD as an NIHR Fellow. Her research interests include post-surgical pain management, PROMS, patient self-management, web-based intervention development and all breast cancer research that is co-developed with patients based on patient identified need. She is also Deputy Chair of the NCRI breast working party on symptom management and is involved in trial development and delivery at all stages.

Research interests include investigation of potential biomarkers in breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant systemic therapy. Previously on steering group for the TeaM study. Other previous roles include chair of the Mammary Fold and member of the Mammary Fold Academic & Research committee

Research interests include Chemoprevention in high risk patient groups; Biomarker driven studies in the neoadjuvant treatment of breast cancer; Use of three dimensional surface imaging technologies in breast surgery. Other roles include Deputy Director Northern Cancer Ireland Cancer Trials Network and Member, NCRI Breast Clinical Studies Group.

Mr Neill Patani  BSc (Hons) MBBS (Hons) PhD FRCS, is a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon (UCLH), Honorary Associate Professor (UCL Cancer Institute) and Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Francis Crick Institute). He has an academic interest in laboratory, translational and clinical breast cancer research and has received prestigious grants and funding from the Wolfson Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Royal College of Surgeons and Medical Research Council. He was awarded 1st Class Honours for his BSc in Tumour Biology at UCL and completed his PhD in Breast Cancer at the Royal Marsden Hospital and Institute of Cancer Research. Working collaboratively with scientists, oncologists and radiologists, Neill is currently exploring how breast cancer metabolism can be targeted for functional imaging and novel therapies. He is also involved in clinical trials studying the optimal sequencing of breast cancer treatments and the de-escalation of surgery following neo-adjuvant therapy. As an Honorary Clinical Fellow for the national Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) quality improvement initiative, Neill contributed to evaluating and learning from litigation in breast surgery.

Sarah qualified as a nurse in 2007, and has completed a masters in advanced nursing studies.  She has over 12 years’ experience as a senior research delivery nurse, setting up research units which resulted in winning the CLRN ‘Research Nurse of the Year’ award, with the last 8 years being in breast cancer at the Nightingale Centre in Manchester. Sarah is on the ABS Academic and Research Committee as well as the Nursing Committee, giving insight into trial delivery.

Ms Jajini Susan Varghese is a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and The Princess Grace Hospital. She specialises in Plastic Surgery and in Breast Oncology Surgery. She completed her plastic surgical training on the Pan-Thames rotation in London and the Breast Oncoplastic TIG fellowship at St Barts Hospital.

Prior to her surgical training, she completed her PhD on the Genetics of Breast cancer at the University of Cambridge on full scholarships. She is attached with University College London (UCL) as an Honorary Clinical Lecturer and is sub-module lead on the MSc in Burns Plastics and Reconstructive Course at UCL. She is the NIHR sub-specialty lead for North-Thames and actively recruits to national trials as PI. Additionally, she is the current speciality lead for mainstreaming breast cancer in North London Genomics (GLH) hub.

Research interest : Genomics of Breast Cancer with a special interest in breast cancer among Ethnic Minority women.

Development of Raman Spectroscopy technology for use of intraoperative cancer cell detection

Assessment of minimally invasive ablation of breast cancer – Photodynamic therapy

Development of plastic surgery techniques to aid Breast conserving surgery.

Research interests include geriatric oncology, psychooncology, data modelling, mixed methods research (qualitative and quantitative), quality of life research and clinical trials.   She leads the Age Gap study of cancer outcomes in older women with early breast cancer.

I trained in Nottingham, Bristol, Manchester and Yorkshire. I have been a consultant surgeon at the James Paget Hospital since 2005.  I was an MRCS examiner and Chair of the Court at the time of significant changes to the format. For 5 years, I was Divisional Director which gave me a broader understanding of the relationship between service provision and training. More recently, I have been Chair of the oncoplastic breast Training Interface group, a member of the SAC in General Surgery and appointed as Training Programme Director for the East of England. I am currently a QA surgeon. 

Lucy Khan qualified from the University of Edinburgh in 2006 and trained at the Edinburgh Breast unit before completing her oncoplastic fellowship at Frimley Park Hospital, Surrey, including training in aesthetic and cosmetic breast surgery. She worked as a consultant at Mid-Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust before returning to Scotland where she is a consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon based at Forth Valley Royal Hospital but also working in NHS Fife and NHS Lanarkshire.

She has interests in lipofilling, symmetrising surgery and immediate breast reconstruction. She has a busy private practice focused on cosmetic breast surgery and is keen to support breast and plastic surgeons to undertake safe, best practice in this area. Lucy is keen to promote the cosmetic surgery accreditation scheme and the national breast and cosmetic implant registry.

Mr Dibyesh Banerjee MBBS MS FRCSEd FRCS, is a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon based at St George’s University Hospital in Tooting, SW London. In his NHS and Private practice, he offers a wide range of Aesthetic, Oncoplastic and Reconstructive surgery. He has developed close links with his Plastic Surgery colleagues to offer the full range of surgical options – esp. autologous reconstructions – to his patients. This also allows him to adapt many of the finer aesthetic aspects into his repertoire. Mr Banerjee operates on over 160 breast cancer patients each year. He performs over 60 implant-based breast reconstructions annually, alongside similar numbers of breast augmentations, reductions, therapeutic mammoplasty and mastopexy procedures. These are for symmetrisation as well as for cosmetic surgery, in carefully selected cases. He maintains a high standard of practice, audits his results regularly and seeks patient feedback diligently.

Mr Banerjee qualified in 1990 from Madras University and commenced his Higher Surgical Training in the UK from 1994. He was appointed to his current post in 2004. His overseas experience includes attachments at the Plastic Surgery Dept at Emory University, Altanta and, at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, in NYC. He is an active faculty member of various training courses. He has served on the Advisory Board of some Breast Implant and mesh companies (on Honorary basis). As a keen surgical trainer and educator, he sits on the SW London Training Committee and is on the Faculty for National ST Selection. Mr Banerjee has been the Educational Supervisor and mentor to over 30 Breast Surgery trainees since 2005, many of whom have gone on to become Consultant Colleagues locally as well as, nationally. In his free time, he enjoys listening to music including jazz & blues and travelling. He is an active member of Surrey County Cricket Club.

Mr Douglas Ferguson qualified in 1993 (St George’s, London), achieved FRCS (Eng) in 1997, a TiG Oncoplastic Fellowship in 2004 and in 2005 both an MS and the Gold medal for FRCS(GenSurg). He was appointed Exeter’s first Oncoplastic Surgeon in 2006 and Clinical Lead 2009; developing an accredited Oncoplastic centre of excellence, with National TiG Fellow Host status and is the ABS TiG rep. He has worked on regional STCs, as RCSEng College, University representative and as Medical Director at AAC panels. He established and convened several Oncoplastic SWOBS Courses. He was a RCSE Breast Tutor and is Faculty for ABS courses portfolio. He is a University of Exeter Hon Associate Professor for teaching/ research, supervises an MD student and is PI for 9 NCRN trials. He was privileged to be elected as ABS Honorary Treasurer in 2019.  He is the Chairman and a coach of his junior football club and continues to learn the guitar!

Mr Murphy is a specialist in all types of breast problems, whether it be pain, lumps, cosmetic issues or cancer related problems. He specializes in breast cancer surgery, breast reconstruction, male breast surgery and cosmetic breast surgery. His sub-specialist clinical interest is in revisional cosmetic breast surgery and risk reducing surgery.

Research interests include breast cancer translational research; breast cancer clinical trials and peri-surgical window studies and nutritional and metabolic determinants of breast cancer outcome.

I trained in Nottingham, Bristol, Manchester and Yorkshire. I have been a consultant surgeon at the James Paget Hospital since 2005.  I was an MRCS examiner and Chair of the Court at the time of significant changes to the format. For 5 years, I was Divisional Director which gave me a broader understanding of the relationship between service provision and training. More recently, I have been Chair of the oncoplastic breast Training Interface group, a member of the SAC in General Surgery and appointed as Training Programme Director for the East of England. I am currently a QA surgeon. 

Mr Dibyesh Banerjee MBBS MS FRCSEd FRCS, is a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon based at St George’s University Hospital in Tooting, SW London. In his NHS and Private practice, he offers a wide range of Aesthetic, Oncoplastic and Reconstructive surgery. He has developed close links with his Plastic Surgery colleagues to offer the full range of surgical options – esp. autologous reconstructions – to his patients. This also allows him to adapt many of the finer aesthetic aspects into his repertoire. Mr Banerjee operates on over 160 breast cancer patients each year. He performs over 60 implant-based breast reconstructions annually, alongside similar numbers of breast augmentations, reductions, therapeutic mammoplasty and mastopexy procedures. These are for symmetrisation as well as for cosmetic surgery, in carefully selected cases. He maintains a high standard of practice, audits his results regularly and seeks patient feedback diligently.

Mr Banerjee qualified in 1990 from Madras University and commenced his Higher Surgical Training in the UK from 1994. He was appointed to his current post in 2004. His overseas experience includes attachments at the Plastic Surgery Dept at Emory University, Altanta and, at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, in NYC. He is an active faculty member of various training courses. He has served on the Advisory Board of some Breast Implant and mesh companies (on Honorary basis). As a keen surgical trainer and educator, he sits on the SW London Training Committee and is on the Faculty for National ST Selection. Mr Banerjee has been the Educational Supervisor and mentor to over 30 Breast Surgery trainees since 2005, many of whom have gone on to become Consultant Colleagues locally as well as, nationally. In his free time, he enjoys listening to music including jazz & blues and travelling. He is an active member of Surrey County Cricket Club.

Carol-Ann Courtney has been a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon in Derby since 2007. Her interests outwith breast surgery are in medical education and she is the Locally Employed Doctors Tutor at her Trust and has been involved with the MS Oncoplastics course run by UEA for  many years. She looks forward to representing the views of her East Midlands colleagues. 

Izzy works as a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon in North Bristol NHS Trust and Weston General Hospital. She undertook her surgical training in the South West, followed by a fellowship in Perth, Western Australia.

Jon Horsnell is a Consultant Oncoplastic Surgeon who has worked at the Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford since January 2017. He qualified from Bristol University in 2002 and subsequently completed his higher surgical breast training at hospitals in Bath, Bristol and Cheltenham. He was awarded a Doctorate in Medicine (DM) in 2013 following a period of research looking at axillary lymph node assessment using Raman Spectroscopy.  He subsequently completed fellowships in both Oncoplastic Surgery ( at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford and the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead) as well as Reconstructive and Cosmetic Surgery (at the Royal Marsden Hospital).

Tracey has been a Consultant Oncoplastic Surgeon in Guildford since 2009. She has a special interest in oncoplastic breast conservation, neoadjuvant chemotherapy and management of the axilla and runs the Guildford gene carrier clinic for patients in the KSS region. In 2015 she was awarded the Murray Brennan Scholarship by the American College of Surgeons and spent two months in the major cancer centres in the US. She has been Senior Clinical advisor for the breast Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) programme since 2017 and is CQC Specialty Advisor for breast, setting up the new breast specialty specific inspection. In 2022 she was appointed National Clinical Lead for Breast Cancer.

Rick Linforth trained in the regional teaching hospitals of  Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds and completed his oncoplastic fellowship in Manchester in 2004. He was chair of the Mammary Fold in 2005.

He completed a higher degree as a Doctorate in Medicine (MD) in 2005 following a two- research period studying mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis.

He was appointed Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon at Bradford Teaching Hospitals in 2006, where he has held senior management posts including Divisional Clinical Director of all Surgical Specialties and Anaesthesia. He has also been the Breast Specialty lead and  MDT lead. He is a National Trainer in Breast Surgery for the Association of Breast Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS Eng). He holds dual fellowships from both the RCS England and RCS Edinburgh.

Damian McCartan commenced as a Consultant Breast and General Surgeon at St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin in September 2017.  His sub-specialist area of interest is oncoplastic breast surgery having completed international fellowships in oncoplastic and reconstructive breast surgery at the University Hospital of South Manchester in the UK and in breast surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York.

Vassilis Pitsinis is a consultant breast surgeon in NHS Tayside (Ninewells Hospital and Medical School)  with an interest in Oncoplastic Surgery. He is also an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer in the University of Dundee Medical School.

Following his graduation from medical School in 2000 he completed his MD thesis in experimental surgery in the University of Athens medical School in 2004. His surgical training took place in London and in East Anglia as well as in the University hospitals in Athens and Strasbourg's Louis Pasteur University. He has completed a breast surgical fellowship in Cambridge and in Paris.

His current research into breast cancer is focused on in a novel technique of replacing radioisotope and blue dye with fluorescence as localization for sentinel lymph node biopsy in early breast cancer. He has been elected as a Tayside Academic Health Science Partnership Clinical Fellow.

Ruth Waters is a Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital of the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust. She has specialised in all aspects of breast reconstruction but with a particular interest in microsurgical reconstruction and the surgical management of lymphoedema. She is the West Midlands representative on BAPRAS council and the breast TIG representative on the SAC

Research interests include investigation of a fluorescent navigation system for sentinel lymph node (SLN) detection and development of a model for assessing fibroblast transformation. Other roles include local Principle Investigator for several national trials including POSNOC and MarginProbe and co-investigator for BUBBLES, PRIMETIME and PIONEER.

Katy is a Nurse Consultant in Breast at the Nightingale Breast Unit, Manchester Foundation Trust. Katy qualified as a registered nurse in 1996 and began her professional career in theatres before becoming a Surgical Care Practitioner. In 2006 Katy undertook a masters module in advanced skills in breast care before undertaking the Advanced Clinical Practice Msc at the University of Central Lancashire. Katy was a Lead Clinical Nurse Specialist in Breast care for 10 years in Stockport, a unit which supported newly diagnosed breast cancer patients through to palliative care. Since 2019 Katy has worked at MFT, initially in the role of Advanced Nurse Practitioner and more recently as a Nurse Consultant. In 2021 Katy was awarded, along with a colleague, the National Nursing Times Award in Cancer Care for the implementation of a telephone assessment clinic for breast pain. Katy’s current role is 50% clinical and 50% research and she is currently working towards her PhD.

Katy is passionate about her role as a nurse and the value that nursing brings to a patients experience.

I have been a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals since 2014. I trained in London and Oxford region and completed an oncoplastic fellowship in Stockholm, Sweden.

I have been involved in surgical education throughout my career and was the first Honorary Secretary of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers at RCS Edinburgh where we produced the guidelines for accreditation of Educational Supervisors adopted by the GMC. I have also been on the organising committee for ICOSET (International Conference on Surgical Education and Training) the largest conference of its kind in the world. I am also an RCS examiner.

I was delighted to be appointed as south central region ABS rep and I look forward to bringing the concerns and issues of my breast surgical colleagues to this national forum and work to maintain and improve clinical standards in breast surgery.

I trained in Nottingham, Bristol, Manchester and Yorkshire. I have been a consultant surgeon at the James Paget Hospital since 2005.  I was an MRCS examiner and Chair of the Court at the time of significant changes to the format. For 5 years, I was Divisional Director which gave me a broader understanding of the relationship between service provision and training. More recently, I have been Chair of the oncoplastic breast Training Interface group, a member of the SAC in General Surgery and appointed as Training Programme Director for the East of England. I am currently a QA surgeon. 

Research interests include geriatric oncology, psychooncology, data modelling, mixed methods research (qualitative and quantitative), quality of life research and clinical trials.   She leads the Age Gap study of cancer outcomes in older women with early breast cancer.

Rachel has been a consultant breast surgeon in Worcestershire since 2006. Within the breast surgery community Rachel has been a faculty member of the MS in Oncoplastic Breast Surgery Course and the Advanced Breast Disease Management course. More widely, she has been a clinical and educational supervisor for all levels of junior doctors, the college tutor for surgery, the director of the West Midlands’ core surgical teaching programme and she has recently become the area TPD for General Surgery in Coventry, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Matthew Barber is a Consultant Breast Surgeon in Edinburgh and West Lothian, Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, External Advisor on breast surgery consultant appointments for the Scottish Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and chair of the South East Scotland Cancer Network Breast Group.  He trained in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Manchester.  He has interests in breast surgery training and outcomes of implant-based breast reconstruction.

Geeta Shetty has been an Oncoplastic and reconstructive surgery Consultant since April 2013. She has been passionately involved in Education and Training for consultant colleagues, fellows and trainees in UK and Internationally. She is the founder and director of the Live Chest Wall Perforator Course, which is a first of its kind in UK and is a regular occurrence at Birmingham City Hospital. She has been an Educational and Clinical supervisor for MIPDed candidates (Edinburgh University) and MCH candidates (Edge Hill University) with formal affiliations as an honorary senior supervisor and honorary senior lecturer in respective universities. She is a Visiting professor at Manipal University, India. Her recent achievement is being the founder and lead for implementing an ingenious Breast Care Teaching Programme internationally.

Mr Douglas Ferguson qualified in 1993 (St George’s, London), achieved FRCS (Eng) in 1997, a TiG Oncoplastic Fellowship in 2004 and in 2005 both an MS and the Gold medal for FRCS(GenSurg). He was appointed Exeter’s first Oncoplastic Surgeon in 2006 and Clinical Lead 2009; developing an accredited Oncoplastic centre of excellence, with National TiG Fellow Host status and is the ABS TiG rep. He has worked on regional STCs, as RCSEng College, University representative and as Medical Director at AAC panels. He established and convened several Oncoplastic SWOBS Courses. He was a RCSE Breast Tutor and is Faculty for ABS courses portfolio. He is a University of Exeter Hon Associate Professor for teaching/ research, supervises an MD student and is PI for 9 NCRN trials. He was privileged to be elected as ABS Honorary Treasurer in 2019.  He is the Chairman and a coach of his junior football club and continues to learn the guitar!

I am an Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) in Breast Care for University of Derby & Burton NHS Foundation Trust.

I have worked in the speciality of Breast Care since 2000, first as a breast clinical nurse specialist then as an ANP.

I qualified in 1995 as a 'project 2000' nurse. I have worked elective in ward areas specialising in; orthopaedic, ophthalmology, general surgery and female breast and urology

I am passionate about advanced practice in the breast care setting and hope that we can work to streamline and standardise this with help from ABS in the future.

Miss Sami works as a Speciality Doctor, Breast Surgery, at Lincoln County Hospital, Lincoln, where she promotes education and training in my role as Breast surgical Audit and Education Lead. She is dedicated and committed to the teaching of healthcare professional and take active part in training of Advanced Nurse Practitioner and Theatre first assistants. She has been part of the RCS faculty for 4 years, experienced examiner of undergraduate medical students for the University of Nottingham and an active member of IBRANET Localization steering group.

I trained in Nottingham, Bristol, Manchester and Yorkshire. I have been a consultant surgeon at the James Paget Hospital since 2005.  I was an MRCS examiner and Chair of the Court at the time of significant changes to the format. For 5 years, I was Divisional Director which gave me a broader understanding of the relationship between service provision and training. More recently, I have been Chair of the oncoplastic breast Training Interface group, a member of the SAC in General Surgery and appointed as Training Programme Director for the East of England. I am currently a QA surgeon. 

Rajiv is a consultant surgeon in the Nightingale & Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Centre, at Wythenshawe Hospital, which is recognised as one of the largest Breast symptomatic and screening units in the UK. This is a recognised centre of excellence, providing complex oncoplastic breast surgery and leading on new technology. His specialist surgical training, which spanned over 10 years, includes a TIG Oncoplastic fellowship in Manchester, and an International Fellowship (Breast, Endocrine and Melanoma) in Melbourne, Australia.

Dr Rose Alenyo is a Plastic Surgeon with Interest in Breast Oncoplastic surgery working at Makerere University School of Medicine, Kampala, Uganda

Research interests include investigation of a fluorescent navigation system for sentinel lymph node (SLN) detection and development of a model for assessing fibroblast transformation. Other roles include local Principle Investigator for several national trials including POSNOC and MarginProbe and co-investigator for BUBBLES, PRIMETIME and PIONEER.

Dr Victoria Harmer qualified with an award for distinction in practice and is Consultant Nurse and lead nurse for the breast screening and symptomatic services at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. She acts as Key Worker to people with breast cancer, and has published widely, as well as editing the book ‘Breast Cancer Nursing Care and Management’. She has acted as medical adviser for radio, television and film and involved in many research trial e.g. OPTIMA. She has received Nursing Times Cancer Nursing award and was a finalist for the Public Health category in 2022. She has worked with Marks and Spencer designing swimwear for the post mastectomy body, is Trustee for Against Breast Cancer charity, on the Medical Advisory Board for CoppaFeel!, deputy Chair for Europa Donna UK and a member of the ABS International Forum. Dr Harmer has a degree in nursing from Kings College, an MBA from Westminster Business School, a doctorate from Kings and is an Associateship of Kings College.

Ruth James is a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon at the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital. She is a member of the International Committee of the Association of Breast Surgery and has a special interest in education and training. She has been a faculty member for the Breast Surgery Preceptorship Education and Outreach Summit held in Nairobi 2019, the MSc in Surgical Science and Practice at Oxford, the Oxford Global Surgery Course and the SLNB Course Breast Cancer with the Max Institute of Medical Excellence, New Delhi. She has co-developed an Ultrasound Workshop for International Trainees at Luton and is a faculty member of the University of East Anglia on-line Breast Ultrasound module.

Monica Reeves commenced her career within nursing in 1990, gaining valuable experience in many varied fields, including A&E & theatre.

In 1999 she was fortunate to work in Tanzania, with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), as a Clinical Instructor gaining an insight into heath care within a low-income country.

In 2016 she trained as an Enhanced Surgical First Assistant with Edge Hill University.

She successfully studied for a master’s degree at Edgehill University, Liverpool, in 2017 and Principles of Breast Cancer Care in 2021 at The Royal Marsden, Manchester. 

She is currently employed as a Surgical Care Practitioner within the breast team at Mersey & West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

She works independently within triple assessment and review clinics. Her role also includes assisting in theatres as well as supporting the training and mentoring of Junior Doctors. 

Fiona is a Consultant Breast and Reconstructive Surgeon at Wycombe Hospital, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS. She is the Trust Cancer Clinical Lead and a committee member of the Association of Breast Surgery International Committee. She sits on the Thames Valley Higher Surgical Trainees ARCP, is an educational and clinical supervisor for higher and basic surgical trainees, and is involved in the training of advanced nurse practitioners, physician associates and surgical care practitioners in the department.

Fiona graduated from King’s College London, and completed her higher surgical training in the North West London Deanery. She has an interest in using innovations for her patients, and has recently introduced the MagTotal approach and the Concentric digital consent. She encourages her patients to be enrolled in relevant trials including SMALL, ATNEC, PRELUDE, KORTUC and BLUSH.

Mina Youssef is a consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. He is a member of the International Committee of the Association of Breast Surgery.

Alongside the clinical training, he completed an MSc and MD in Surgical Oncology, and he was awarded the European Board of Breast Surgery in 2015. He recently completed MBA at the UEA.

He is a Senior Lecturer at the University of East Anglia, a faculty member of the FRCS exam question writing group. He is an educational and clinical supervisor for higher and basic surgical trainees and the Surgical Foundation Program Director for NNUH.

He has been a faculty member of the Breast Awareness Course in Chandrapur, India in 2023 and is an alumni Surgeon of the Mercy Ships charity.

I trained in Nottingham, Bristol, Manchester and Yorkshire. I have been a consultant surgeon at the James Paget Hospital since 2005.  I was an MRCS examiner and Chair of the Court at the time of significant changes to the format. For 5 years, I was Divisional Director which gave me a broader understanding of the relationship between service provision and training. More recently, I have been Chair of the oncoplastic breast Training Interface group, a member of the SAC in General Surgery and appointed as Training Programme Director for the East of England. I am currently a QA surgeon. 

A senior research nurse in breast cancer for the last 20 years, Sue currently works as a Post-Doc Research Fellow in Leeds; having completed a PhD as an NIHR Fellow. Her research interests include post-surgical pain management, PROMS, patient self-management, web-based intervention development and all breast cancer research that is co-developed with patients based on patient identified need. She is also Deputy Chair of the NCRI breast working party on symptom management and is involved in trial development and delivery at all stages.

Sarah qualified as a nurse in 2007, and has completed a masters in advanced nursing studies.  She has over 12 years’ experience as a senior research delivery nurse, setting up research units which resulted in winning the CLRN ‘Research Nurse of the Year’ award, with the last 8 years being in breast cancer at the Nightingale Centre in Manchester. Sarah is on the ABS Academic and Research Committee as well as the Nursing Committee, giving insight into trial delivery.

I am an Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) in Breast Care for University of Derby & Burton NHS Foundation Trust.

I have worked in the speciality of Breast Care since 2000, first as a breast clinical nurse specialist then as an ANP.

I qualified in 1995 as a 'project 2000' nurse. I have worked elective in ward areas specialising in; orthopaedic, ophthalmology, general surgery and female breast and urology

I am passionate about advanced practice in the breast care setting and hope that we can work to streamline and standardise this with help from ABS in the future.

Dr Victoria Harmer qualified with an award for distinction in practice and is Consultant Nurse and lead nurse for the breast screening and symptomatic services at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. She acts as Key Worker to people with breast cancer, and has published widely, as well as editing the book ‘Breast Cancer Nursing Care and Management’. She has acted as medical adviser for radio, television and film and involved in many research trial e.g. OPTIMA. She has received Nursing Times Cancer Nursing award and was a finalist for the Public Health category in 2022. She has worked with Marks and Spencer designing swimwear for the post mastectomy body, is Trustee for Against Breast Cancer charity, on the Medical Advisory Board for CoppaFeel!, deputy Chair for Europa Donna UK and a member of the ABS International Forum. Dr Harmer has a degree in nursing from Kings College, an MBA from Westminster Business School, a doctorate from Kings and is an Associateship of Kings College.

I am an Advanced Nurse Practitioner at the QA Hospital, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust.

Qualified as a registered nurse in 1995 and worked in various cancer settings, initially joined the breast unit as a Clinical nurse specialist and now ANP. I completed my Msc in leadership and Cancer care at Southampton university in 2019. My role includes assessment, diagnosis, and management of benign and malignant breast conditions. Also involved in family history clinics and have a special interest in chemotherapy, working alongside consultant oncologists in a nurse led chemo prescribing clinic, reviewing neo adjuvant, adjuvant, and metastatic patients.

Katy is a Nurse Consultant in Breast at the Nightingale Breast Unit, Manchester Foundation Trust. Katy qualified as a registered nurse in 1996 and began her professional career in theatres before becoming a Surgical Care Practitioner. In 2006 Katy undertook a masters module in advanced skills in breast care before undertaking the Advanced Clinical Practice Msc at the University of Central Lancashire. Katy was a Lead Clinical Nurse Specialist in Breast care for 10 years in Stockport, a unit which supported newly diagnosed breast cancer patients through to palliative care. Since 2019 Katy has worked at MFT, initially in the role of Advanced Nurse Practitioner and more recently as a Nurse Consultant. In 2021 Katy was awarded, along with a colleague, the National Nursing Times Award in Cancer Care for the implementation of a telephone assessment clinic for breast pain. Katy’s current role is 50% clinical and 50% research and she is currently working towards her PhD.

Katy is passionate about her role as a nurse and the value that nursing brings to a patients experience.

Nicola is a Breast Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. She qualified as a registered nurse in 2005 at Salford University and has completed a Diploma and Bsc in Nursing. She began her career as a ward nurse in Breast and Gynae surgery before becoming a Breast CNS 5 years ago. Whilst a Breast CNS at The Countess Of Chester Hospital she was joint lead in setting up the family history clinic and completed a cancer genetics course to support her in this role. Her role as a Breast CNS is meeting patients at diagnosis, offering support, co-ordinating their care at diagnosis, during treatment and surveillance.

Siobhan is a Breast Care Nurse Specialist at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.  

Siobhan took up the post of ABS regional nurse representative for Northern Ireland in April 2022. Siobhan has over twenty years experience working as a registered nurse. Before moving into the breast care speciality she worked in various units including general surgery, breast surgery, vascular, orthopaedic and day procedure unit.

Siobhan completed the breast care course in the Christie Hospital in 2008 and joined the breast team in the Belfast City Hospital in 2009. In her role as a breast care nurse Siobhan is committed to health promotion and patient empowerment. She helped set-up, co-ordinate and organise the Breast Health and Wellbeing Events for the Belfast Trust. She displayed a poster at Glasgow ABS Conference focusing on the benefits the Health and Wellbeing Events.

Siobhan has good experience of collaborative working and developing integrated approaches to delivering patient centred, high quality services.

I have worked as a Breast Clinical Nurse Specialist for 15 years. Additionally, I serve as a committee member for NICE, where I utilise my knowledge and experience to shape national recommendations for cancer services.

In 2022, I finished a two-year secondment as the Macmillan Personalised Care Project Lead at Gateshead Health Foundation Trust. Since 2018, I have worked with local industries and the Gateshead breast team to improve the quality of life for patients and developed a portfolio of digital patient support and virtual rehabilitation/menopause support clinics.

 This work received recognition at the 2023 Allied Health Science Awards, where we won the Innovation category. Additionally, I received the Oncology Nurse of the Year-Silver award as the runner-up in the 2023 British Journal of Nursing Awards.

I have a background as a qualified personal trainer/cancer rehabilitation practitioner. I was nominated as the Lead Lifestyle Advisor for The North of England Women's Diet and Activity After Breast Cancer Trial.

To further raise awareness of lifestyle intervention, I have been an active member of the NCRI Breast Working Group for Lifestyle and Behavioural Interventions for Breast Cancer. I have also collaborated with the charities Future Dreams and Breast Cancer Now to support their Lifestyle support initiatives in Breast Cancer support.

Suzy has worked as a Consultant Nurse in Breast Services at Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust since 2022. She is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner, leading service development in relation to; nurse led breast symptom assessment, breast pain pathway provision, family history assessment, raised risk breast surveillance, and breast referral triage.

Suzy is also Nurse Co-Lead for the ABS Aspire (Breast Pain Pathway Rapid Evaluation) Steering Group, and a NICE Fellow (2020-2022). She is an experienced Clinical Specialist Lead and historical NICE committee member (IPAC 2018-2021).

In addition to 25 years experience as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in breast care, Suzy has also worked on secondment as a Clinical Procurement and Quality Assurance Lead for NHS Supply Chain (DHL), and a freelance Advanced Nurse Practitioner working with various NHS Trusts in Surrey and Sussex.

Suzy has a Degree in Nursing, a Diploma in Breast Cancer Care, a Post Graduate Certificate in Counselling a Psychotherapy, and an Advanced Practice (Cancer) MSc. She has published in relation to earlier cancer diagnosis, breast screening surveillance and breast referral triage, symptomatic breast referral resource, and breast pain, and was awarded Health Service Journal Patient Safety Awards Finalist in 2021.

Suzy has a strong interest in co-production, compassionate healthcare practice, human factors, reducing unwarranted variation, and translating policy into practice to enhance patient outcomes.