James Paget University Hospital

Education & Training Committee Chair

Sue Down is an Associate Professor at UEA and Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon and Clinical Lead for Breast surgery at the James Paget University Hospital. She Completed her initial surgical training in Manchester, and has a PhD in Cancer Studies at the University of Birmingham. She also Undertook a National TIG Oncoplastic Fellowship and was Chair of the National Breast Trainees Group. In addition to her clinical role, she is Course Director for several award winning Mastership programmes in Specialist Breast Surgery at the University of East Anglia and has broad experience in clinical assessment methods. Sue is the Current Chair of the National Education and Training committee, Association of Breast Surgery, UK.

Edinburgh Breast Unit

Member

Matthew Barber trained in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Manchester and has been a consultant breast surgeon in Lothian since 2004.  He is chair of the South East Scotland Breast Cancer Network, clinical lead for symptomatic breast disease for the Modernising Patient Pathways Programme for NHS Scotland and member of the National Cancer Quality Steering Group in Scotland.  He has particular interests in breast training, treatment audit and reconstructive outcomes.

ABS President

ABS President

Miss Leena Chagla is the President of the Association of Breast Surgery and past-President of the Liverpool and Northwest Society of Surgeons. She heads the breast unit at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals which is actively involved in clinical innovation and trials. She continues to publish regularly in peer reviewed journals.

Leena qualified from Grant Medical College, Mumbai, with a gold medal in Surgery. Whilst in India, she trained at the Sir JJ Hospital and at the Tata Memorial Cancer Centre. Her passion for surgical oncology developed in those formative years.

She is a popular speaker both nationally and internationally and is involved in the development of guidelines for the management of breast cancer. She is passionate about MDT working and she launched the Anti-bullying Campaign (#CoreItOut) for ABS in alliance with RCSEd. She represented ABS on the pathology Big 18 and the organising committee of Symposia Mammographicum.

Leena was instrumental in setting up the International Forum at ABS with a view to sharing good practice globally.  She is committed to improving and standardising Breast cancer care through education and training. She is an Educational Supervisor for the National Oncoplastic Fellow and she is a Professional Clinical Advisor for screening to Public Health England.

Outside of work Leena is a keen sportswoman having played water-polo for Maharashtra, Liverpool and the Northern Counties at the highest level.

James Paget Healthcare NHS Trust

ABS Vice President

Ms Downey qualified from Nottingham University in the last century and she undertook SHO training in Bristol, Research in Breast Cancer Oncology in Manchester and Registrar training in Yorkshire. Her first consultant post in Bradford for 4 years and moved to East Anglia in 2005. Sarah's first involvement in RCS was examiner for MRCS at time OSCE introduced. Acted on committee and then Chair of Court of Examiners for RCS England. Part of training committee since came to East Anglia in 2005. Undertook Divisional Director role in own hospital for 5 years – opened new daycase unit. Acted as regional Breast Screening QA Surgeon for 6 years. Joined SAC in 2015 and became regional TPD in 2018. Currently Chair of General Surgery SAC.  Undergraduate PBL tutor and online tutor for oncoplastic MS. Director of Screening for own Trust and also Clinical Appraisal Lead. Former TIG Chair and faculty on Advanced Breast Cancer Course. Currently Honorary Secretary of ABS.

Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

ABS Trustee

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!

Nursing Representative

Jo Fields works as a consultant nurse in breast services for Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She has over 20 years’ experience working within breast teams as a CNS and ACP. Her areas of interest include managing the long term consequences of breast cancer treatment, and the effective use of skill mix. She holds a Doctorate in Clinical Practice from the University of Southampton. Her research focused on the non-pharmacological  management of arthralgia associated with aromatase inhibitors.

North Manchester General Hospital

SAS Grade Representative

Nursing Representative

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.

Royal Stoke University Hospital

Member

Frimley Park Hospital

ABS Trustee

Isabella has been a Consultant Oncoplastic Surgeon at Frimley Health NHS Trust since 2009, where she is the Clinical Lead for Frimley Park Breast Unit and The Parapet Unit in Windsor. She is passionate and dedicated in the training of oncoplastic breast surgery where she now mentors three Oncoplastic Fellows across the Trust. She was recently appointed Communications Ordinary Trustee to the ABS and she currently serves as Director of Course Development. Isabella has taught on the UEA Masters in Breast Oncoplastic Surgery for 13 years and has been the ABS Yearbook Editor since 2021. Her special interests include revisional surgery and using Lean methodology to improve efficiencies and surgical outcomes.

Mammary Fold Representative

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Oncoplastic Breast Surgery TIG Representative

Professor Roy is a Consultant Oncoplastic and Reconstructive Breast Surgeon in Oxford since 2011. She only performs breast surgery and offers all aspects including breast cancer surgery, reconstruction surgery and cosmetic surgery.

She graduated from University of Delhi, India and underwent higher surgical training at Oxford. She was selected for prestigious National Oncoplastic Fellowship at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust in 2009 and did a higher degree in research in breast cancer from University of Dundee. Since her appointment, she has set up a successful Oncoplastic breast service at OUH trust. A full range of reconstructive service is being offered in close association with plastic surgeons, who perform free flap reconstruction. She is a very dedicated clinician and offers compassionate consultations and individualized expert advice and opinion for breast problems.

Miss Roy specializes in diagnosis and management of breast diseases, both benign and malignant. Her specialist interest includes surgical management of breast cancer whilst ensuring an optimum aesthetic outcome by offering specialist techniques such as mammaplasty and partial breast reconstruction. She offers immediate breast reconstruction with implants and flaps for patients undergoing mastectomy for breast cancer and offers sentinel lymph node biopsy for axillary staging of patients with breast cancer. She also offers correction of breast deformities and/or breast asymmetry to patients having undergone breast cancer surgery in the past.

She is actively involved in breast cancer research and is the principal investigator at Oxford for national and international trials. She is motivated to enhance the research in the field and is actively involved in recruiting patients for research projects in collaboration with CRUK.

IPGMER & SSKM Hospitals, Kolkata

International Representative

City Hospital Birmingham

Member

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 introduced a chest wall perforator flap procedure via live demonstration in Delhi, India in 2018. 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, MAHAE, India. She is a Vice President for ACCC Society India (conduct courses on management of Acute critical care of surgical ill patients). Her recent achievement is being the founder and lead for implementing an ingenious international Breast Care Teaching Programme.  She is been an author of several publications and book chapters. Her aim it to work towards betterment of health care service by spreading knowledge.

Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading

Course Director

Brendan Smith is a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon appointed as a consultant at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in 2005..

He was one of the first cohorts of National Oncoplastic TIG fellows and gained his first choice fellowship at the Christie and South Manchester University Teaching Hospitals.

Brendan set up the first Breast Oncoplastic Surgery service in the Oxford deanery and has trained many other Consultant breast surgeons.

He set up a level 1 oncoplastic training unit at the Royal Berkshire Hospital encompassing all aspects of oncoplastic breast surgery. Over this period he has always looked to develop and deliver new and more effective reconstruction techniques to his patients

James Paget University Hospital

AHP Representative

After completing a degree in Medical Physiology and Therapeutics at the University of Nottingham, Laura joined the University of East Anglia Physician Associate Studies Masters course to train to become a Physician Associate. She is a member of Faculty of Physician Associates and Physician Associate Managed Voluntary Register (PAMVR).
Laura joined the James Paget Breast surgery team in January 2021. She undertakes a range of clinical tasks to support the consultant and nursing team including clinics, assisting in theatres and post-surgical care of patients.

Royal United Hospital, Bath

Courses Portfolio Lead

Mr Richard Sutton is a Consultant Breast Surgeon specialising in oncoplastic, reconstructive and cosmetic breast surgery at Bath Clinic. He also holds a substantive NHS consultant post at the Royal United Hospital (RUH) in Bath and was appointed in 2003.

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Member

Fiona is a Consultant Breast and Reconstructive Surgeon at Wycombe Hospital, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS, and appointed to the senior management position of Trust Cancer Clinical Director in 2021. She is a committee member of the ABS International and Education Committees, and a co-director of the ACE Course (Accelerating the Consultant Experience). She is committed to medical education and holds roles as a panel member for the Oxford Deanery Higher Surgical Trainees, a tutor and examiner for the University of Oxford and the University of Buckingham Medical Schools and an Assistant Professor at St Georges University, Grenada. 

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 introduced the MagTotal approach for breast cancer localisation, the Concentric digital consent platform, as well as encouraging her patients to be enrolled in relevant trials. She has an active role in quality improvement projects and her team were a finalist at the HSJ Awards 2024.

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

ABS Trustee

Dr Raghavan Vidya is a Senior lecturer at Birmingham University and Consultant Oncoplastic breast surgeon at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. She graduated from University of Madras, India followed by Postgraduate training in General Surgery. She completed her MD (Research) on aromatase inhibitors from University of Edinburgh. She has introduced and mentored new innovations including muscle-sparing implant-based breast reconstruction.  

She serves as a Trustee of the Association of Breast surgery and actively contributes to its working. Dedicated to teaching and training, she contributes actively as a Higher Surgical Trainer, delivers lectures, and runs workshops as invited faculty for national and international meetings. Through her role as Royal College, International Surgical Training Programme Lead for Breast Surgery, she is committed to advancing breast training. She has a strong focus towards clinical research exemplified by over 150 publications. She has published two books on breast reconstruction and an ebook on Global Breast Training in collaboration with RCS and ABS. She promotes clinical application of Genomics in NHS as Associate Director of Genomics in West Midlands.  She is actively involved in clinical trials and have a special interest in new technology and advances in breast surgery.

University of Sheffield

ABS Trustee

Lynda Wyld underwent surgical training in the UK, spending time in Sheffield, Nottingham and Manchester. She did her PhD at the University of Sheffield. She was appointed to an academic post at the University of Sheffield in 2002 and is now Professor of Surgical Oncology. Her clinical interest is the management of breast cancer in older women and she practices as a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon at Doncaster Teaching Hospitals in the UK. Her main research interest is in age related inequalities in cancer surgery where she has led projects to improve outcomes and develop decision aids for older women with breast cancer. Her other career focus has been to develop training in breast cancer surgery and in particular to see the development of breast surgery as a specialty in its own right. She is a Trustee of the ABS and is the current secretary and President Elect of European Breast Exam Board.