ABS President

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.

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Honorary Secretary

Professor Benson is a Consultant Breast Surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, Associate Lecturer, University of Cambridge and Visiting Professor, School of Medicine, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. He has published widely in the field of breast diseases with authorship of more than 160 papers and has written/edited 7 books on breast cancer/reconstructive surgery (ranked in the top 0.084% of the world’s breast cancer experts). He is a former member of the Planning Committee for the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (2013 – 2015) and was a Trustee/member of the Executive Board of ABS until demitting from office in 2021.

Maidstone And Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust

Clinical Practice & Standards Committee Chair

Miss Karina Cox graduated from Imperial College School of Medicine at St Mary's in 1998 and completed her basic surgical training in London. She then spent two years as a clinical research fellow at Imperial College London investigating the function of immune cells in lymph nodes draining breast cancer.

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.

James Paget Healthcare NHS Trust

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.

Wythenshawe Hospital

Nursing Trustee

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.

Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Honorary Treasurer

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!

Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust

Ordinary Trustee

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.

Frimley Park Hospital

Ordinary 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.

Nightingale Breast Cancer Centre, Manchester, UK

Academic and Research Committee Chair

Cliona is an Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon at the Nightingale Breast Cancer Centre in Manchester, UK. She studied medicine, including a BSc in the History of Medicine, at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, London and University College London. Her surgical training was in London, Bristol, Bournemouth, South Africa and Greater Manchester. She completed a PhD entitled ‘The Role of Procoagulants in Cancer and Chemotherapy Induced Venous Thromboembolism’ at the University of Manchester in 2006.

She delivers and teaches in all forms of oncoplastic breast surgery including reconstruction. At the University of Manchester, she leads the Cancer and Thrombosis Research Group, performing basic, translational and clinical research, investigating the symbiotic relationship between cancer and thrombosis. She also supervises MRes, MD and PhD students.

She is Chief Investigator on the TIP Trial and CHAMPion Study and surgical lead for LORIS, PRIMETIME, POETIC-A and FAST-Forward Boost and is on the Sloane Committee. Cliona leads the Association of Breast Surgery guideline development group for Idiopathic Granulomatous Mastitis and is a key member of the International Society of Haemostasis and Thrombosis guideline development group for VTE in breast cancer. She is Director of the North West Surgical Trials Centre, and mentors the North West Research Collaborative and North West Breast Research Collaborative. She also chairs the Scientific Committee for the Prevent Breast Cancer charity.

In her personal life, she enjoys dressmaking, knitting and endurance sports, having previously completed two Ironmans and the Everest Marathon.

Mid and South Essex NHS Trust

Meetings Secretary

Yazan Masannat, MBBS, MRCS(Ed), MRCSI(Dublin), DBRM(UAB), FEBS(Breast Surgery), FRCSEd(Gen Surgery), MD(Leeds) 

Yazan is a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon based at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in the Northeast of Scotland and has been recently appointed as an Associate Post Graduate Deans for Quality by NHS Education for Scotland (NES). He is an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen and an E-Tutor at the MS Oncoplastic Breast Surgery Program run by the University of East Anglia.

He sits on the Education and Training committees of both the Association of Breast Surgery (ABS) and at the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO) and has been recently elected as a member of the Board of Trustees of the ABS. He is the Communications Lead and part of the Executive Group at the iBRA-Net and an Examiner at the European Board of Surgical Oncology and European Board of Breast Surgery (UEMS).

Yazan has more than 30 publications and has been awarded numerous research grants including the prestigious NRS Fellowship award by the Chief Scientist Office in Scotland to continue research on Novel MRI techniques in Breast Cancer with the Team at the University of Aberdeen.

Education is Yazan’s main passion, and he enjoys networking with people from across the world. He has created www.iBreastBook.com which is a free online resource with contributions from many of the leading Breast and Plastic surgeons across the world. During the Coronavirus Lockdown he started the iBreastBook Webinar series with the support of colleagues from across the world. These webinars have been a huge international success, with more than 25 webinars up to March 2022 with most webinars attracting more than 1000-2000 registrants and hundreds of people attending live online, from more than 100 countries.

Worcestershire Royal Hospital

Aesthetic Breast Surgery Committee Chair

Steven Thrush is an experienced breast reconstructive and aesthetic surgeon who has been a Consultant Breast Surgeon in Worcester since 2004. He is passionate about education and has been involved with the the ABS (previously Royal College of Surgeons of England)  breast courses since 2005. He is also a module lead for the Oncoplastic Breast Masters Course run through University of East Anglia. He has lectured internationally and published numerous academic papers on breast surgery.

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

Ordinary 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

Ordinary 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.