Steering Group Membership

Nigel Bundred is Professor of Surgical Oncology, University of Manchester and Consultant Surgeon, Manchester University Foundation Trust.

He has been awarded numerous honours, as well as a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator Award. Nigel has authored or co-authored over 230 peer-reviewed articles published in many journals, including the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, The Lancet, Lancet Oncology and  Cancer Researcher. He is Chief Investigator on several national clinical trials (including EPHOS-B) and has published extensively on the biology and treatment of breast cancer.  He is the GM Clinical Research Network Director for Cancer.

Katherine is Senior Adviser to the James Lind Alliance (JLA) and is chair of the Breast SCancer Surgery Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) Steering Group. She has been a key contributor to the development of the JLA method since 2008 and has chaired and advised around 40 PSPs internationally.

Ramsey Cutress is Professor at the University of Southampton and Consultant Surgeon and clinical lead for Breast Surgery at Southampton University Hospitals Trust. Clinical research interests include investigation of patient and host determinants of breast cancer outcomes including genetic predisposition, immunological and lifestyle factors. Ramsey is involved in various national research studies, clinical trials and translational projects and is the Breast Surgery Associate Editor for the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons and Chair of the Academic and Research Committee of the Association of Breast Surgery (ABS).

Kayleigh Davies-Crowley is a Breast Advanced Nurse Practitioner based in Liverpool and has previously held positions as a Breast Clinical Nurse Specialist, Genome project nurse and Clinical Research nurse.

Patricia Fairbrother is a former breast cancer patients (She required reconstruction for an aggressive fumour).  A working life in health gave her the interest to pursue roles as a patient representative.  She was contracted for 2 years to Macmillan as a user involvement facilitator.  She has lay membership on NHS Cancer advisory groups, clinical trial management team, ABS and European Cancer Organisations.  She particularly enjoys her roles in cancer research.

Chris is a Professor of Surgery at the Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust where he has been a consultant surgeon for over 20 years.  He has held many leadership roles locally and nationally, and has maintained an active research interest throughout this time with over 100 peer reviewed publications.  His current research focus is on the safe and effective introduction of new techniques and devices in breast surgery.  Chris is currently vice-president of the Association of Breast Surgery. Out of work Chris loves to get out to the mountains, is involved with the local church and has 4 children and 6 grandchildren to keep him busy.

As Head of Strategy and Initiatives, Ian is responsible for implementing NCRI’s strategy and overseeing the strategic initiatives that enable NCRI to accelerate cancer research. His team work to engage with NCRI Partners, and other stakeholders; providing strategic support, data and intelligence.

Prior to joining the NCRI Ian worked at Tenovus Cancer Care as the Director of Research and Policy. He completed his PhD in 2005 at Cardiff University studying the mechanisms that some breast cancers use to become resistant to common drug treatments.

Ranjeet Jeevan is a Consultant Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon in Manchester, with interests in microsurgical breast reconstruction and clinical research. 

After developing and implementing the National Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction Audit, and completing his doctoral research, in 2017 he was awarded a prestigious Hunterian Lectureship and the title of Hunterian Professor by The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Stuart McIntosh is an academic consultant breast surgeon in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is an active clinical researcher in breast cancer, with a particular interest in neo-adjuvant, peri-surgical and treatment de-escalation studies, and chairs the Early Disease Subgroup of the NCRI Breast Research Group. He also supervises an active programme of laboratory research in breast cancer.

Rachel O'Connell is currently an Oncoplastic Fellow at the Royal Marsden Hospital.  Her research interests are in breast reconstruction, oncoplastic surgery and Quality of Life after breast cancer treatment

Shelley's research interests focus primarily on improving outcomes for women undergoing oncoplastic and reconstructive breast surgery through the design and delivery of high-quality research. She also has an interest in early phase surgical evaluation and co-lead the Outcomes workstream of the Bristol NIHR Surgical Innovation Theme .

Tim is Clinical Lecturer in Breast and General Surgery at the University of Leicester.  His main research interests are in the prediction and reduction of local treatment side-effects (toxicity) in the breast.  His current research is focused on validating clinical and molecular predictors of toxicity as well as discovering new predictors through Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI) approaches.  He is also interested in applying qualitative research methodology to explore patients’ views on breast cancer treatments and personalised medicine.

Hilary had breast cancer in 2009, and participated in a radiotherapy research trial. This experience encouraged her to become involved as an advocate in breast research. She has been a member of the NCRI Breast Clinical Studies Group. She is a member of Independent Cancer Patients' Voice, and of the Breast Cancer Now Catalyst and Tissue Bank Advisory committees. She has been involved with a number of grant applications and funded studies, in the area of breast treatment, including SMALL, PRIMETIME, and the CRUK DCIS Grand Challenge project, PRECISION.

Patient advocate for Independent Cancer Patient Voice

Simon Vincent has over 20 years' experience of research management with several major UK medical research charities. He has a PhD from Nottingham University, and post-doctoral experience gained at what is now Cancer Research UK. He moved from the labs into the research grants team at Cancer Research UK, and during 14 years at the charity, worked in a number of areas including leading the team that looked after fellowship funding. He joined the research team at Breakthrough Breast Cancer and helped lead the team through several mergers. He is now the Director of Research, Support and Influencing for Breast Cancer Now.