Trustees

Here you will find information about the Association of Breast Surgery's Trustees. If you wish to contact any of the Trustees please do so via the ABS by sending an email to lucydavies@absgbi.org.uk.

Miss Leena Chagla

President

Miss Leena Chagla 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. She qualified from Grant Medical College, Mumbai, and went on to train at JJ Hospital and Tata Memorial Cancer Centre before joining the Merseyside registrar rotation in the UK. She has held multiple posts within ABS, including the post of Honorary Secretary, before she was elected Vice President. Leena was instrumental in setting up the International Forum at ABS with a view to sharing good practice globally.  She facilitates the National Oncoplastic Fellows meeting in Liverpool, annually. She is committed to improving and standardising breast cancer care through educating and training both professionals and lay people alike. She represented Liverpool and Northern Counties in water-polo and enjoys all sport.

Prof John Benson

Honorary Secretary

Miss Karina Cox

Clinical Practice & Standards Committee Chair

Prof Ramsey Cutress

Academic and Research Committee Chair

Ramsey Cutress is Professor of Breast Surgery in Southampton.  Ramsey was Secretary of the Academic and Research Group of the Association of Breast Surgery prior to appointment as Chair of the Committee. He was a member of the NICE NG101 Early and Locally Advanced Guideline Committee and a member of the writing group of the ABS and BAPRAS Oncoplastic breast Reconstruction Guidelines for best practice. Ramsey is course director of the ABS Advanced skills in breast disease management course. He is a member of the NCRI breast clinical studies group (CSG) and has active clinical research interests investigating patient and host determinants of breast cancer outcomes including genetic predisposition, immunological and lifestyle factors and is involved in various national research studies including POSH and iBRA

Miss Sue Down

Education & Training Committee Chair

Sue Down is a Consultant Oncoplastic breast surgeon at James Paget University Hospital and Honorary Associate Professor at the University of East Anglia.  She undertook her undergraduate and basic surgical training in Manchester and gained a PhD in Cancer Studies at the University of Birmingham. She then undertook a National Oncoplastic Fellowship in Birmingham, enabling her to gain experience in advanced oncoplastic techniques.  She is currently Clinical Lead for Breast Surgery and Deputy Research Lead at JPUH Trust. In addition to her clinical role, she is Course Director for four award-winning online Mastership programmes in Specialist Breast Surgery at the University of East Anglia, delivering oncoplastic breast surgery teaching in over 50 countries worldwide.

Ms Sarah Downey

Vice President

I trained in Nottingham, Bristol, Manchester and Yorkshire. I have been a consultant surgeon at the James Paget Hospital since 2005, and I have also had the privilege of serving on a number of national and regional leadership committees. I have had a keen interest in training at all levels and across professions. 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. Out of work, I am a keen gardener.

Mr Douglas Ferguson

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!

Prof Chris Holcombe

Past President

Chris is currently medical lead for Clinical Reliability Groups at Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust and is a recently retired consultant breast surgeon in Liverpool. He has a long-standing commitment to the evaluation of new techniques of breast reconstruction and applying ‘IDEAL’ research principles to the introduction of new surgical devices and techniques.  Chris has been an active recruiter to pre-surgical ‘window of opportunity’ studies and has an interest in the psychology of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.  At home Chris is actively involved in his local church and enjoys spending time with his family and growing number of grandchildren, and heads for the mountains when possible.

Mrs Sue Holcombe

Nursing Trustee

Sue has 25 years of experience of working with breast patients.  She started out in breast research and clinical trials and developed an interest in family history and risk assessment and went on to develop the nurse led practice in the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.  She trained as a Breast Advanced Nurse Practitioner and completed my masters in Practitioner Development.  She currently works as an ANP (Breast) and continues to work in diagnostic clinics, family history clinics, home visits for elderly patients on primary endocrine patients on Primary Endocrine therapy.  She is chair of her hospital’s breast support group and is still involved with patients having moving forward/end of treatment visits.

Miss Tracey Irvine

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.

Mr Yazan Masannat

Meetings Secretary

Yazan Masannat is a Consultant Breast Surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. He is an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen and an E-Tutor with the University of East Anglia. He is on the Board of Trustees of the Association of Breast Surgery as well as a member of their education and training committee. He is the communications lead at the iBRA-net in addition to being an examiner at the European Board of Surgical Oncology and the European Board of Breast Surgery exams (UEMS).  Yazan is the creator of iBreast Book which is a free online educational resource.

Mr Mike McKirdy

International Committee Chair

Mr Steven Thrush

Aesthetic Breast Surgery Committee Chair

Miss Raghavan Vidya

Ordinary Trustee

Vidya is a Senior Lecturer in Birmingham University and works as Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon in The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. She was a founding member of the ABS Academic & Research Committee and is an active member of the International Breast Forum and IBRA network.  She lead the RCS report on Future of Breast Surgery. She has updated the Oncoplastic Guidelines and produced reports on the National Surgical Gap Analysis and Ethnicity and Breast Cancer in UK. 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 140 publications. She promotes clinical application of Genomics in NHS as Associate Director of Genomics in West Midlands. She is actively involved in clinical trials and has a special interest in Oncoplastic Breast Surgery, new technology and advances in breast surgery.  She has published two books on breast reconstruction and an ebook on Global Breast Training in collaboration with RCS and ABS.

Prof Lynda Wyld

Ordinary Trustee

Professor of Surgical Oncology at University of Sheffield and Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  Significant interest in development of and recognition of breast surgery as a stand alone specialty.  Past chair of the ESSO education and training committee for 6 years, developing numerous courses focused on high quality cancer care, including developing and leading the ESSO Advanced Breast Surgery Course and developing the ESSO Oncoplastic Course.  Senior author of the breast surgery curriculum for BRESO, of which was a founding executive member.   Secretary of the UEMS Breast Exam Board.   Examiner (in breast) for the UK FRCS Intercollegiate Specialty Exam.  Research activity themed around breast cancer in the older women, geriatric oncology, psycho oncology, health services modelling and quality of life research with over 120 peer reviewed publications and 20 book chapters.  Senior author on the European Textbook ‘Management of Breast Cancer for Surgeons’.  Past President of BASO and previous board member of the European Mastology Society (EUSOMA).