One of the reasons I enjoyed writing the book is that it will be a memento for them,” says Mansfield. After I retired in 2003, I took on the chairmanship of the Stroke Association for five years which was a wonderful experience. I went all over the country and really enjoyed watching the average person’s knowledge of stroke develop from almost complete ignorance to quite a sophisticated understanding. I then spent one year as the BMA’s president and another five years as the chairman of the BMA’s board of science in addition to a number of other charitable roles. The 'audience' of shipworkers delighted in telling me that there were rats the size of dogs down in the grain. Mansfield was born 11 years before the advent of the NHS – she recalls her parents saving money in a jar on the mantelpiece to pay medical bills – and witnessed the many benefits it provided as well as huge advances in technology during her years in practice.

Life in Her Hands - Penguin Books UK

She was also honorary consultant in paediatric and vascular surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital and founded the first training programme for women at the Royal College of Surgeons. Her motto throughout her career was “lift as you climb”. Women in Surgery is not about positive discrimination, but giving support that can help women on their way and make sure they get the advice they need. Anaesthesia has improved in leaps and bounds during my time as a surgeon. When I started in 1960, anaesthesia was not nearly as sophisticated as it is now and there was no such thing as an intensive care unit. The anaesthetist keeps the patient alive while we surgeons carry out major and, sometimes, quite hazardous procedures. They have the knowledge and skills to maintain the integrity of a patient’s cardiovascular system during the course of the procedure. As surgeons we depend on the anaesthetist and it’s very much a partnership. I’ve worked with some wonderful anaesthetists and I’ve always been grateful for how they ensure patients are well looked after. Reflecting on her remarkable career, she adds, “As surgeons we’re sometimes operating on people who are on the edge of life, and don’t always succeed in saving them, which is the very worst part of the job. But knowing I have helped save thousands of lives – I still receive letters from people who wouldn’t be here without the surgery I performed – is a very special feeling.” Mansfield began her career at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, and became a consultant vascular surgeon there in 1972 and later a lecturer in surgery at the University of Liverpool. She then moved to London in 1980 to work at Hillingdon Hospital. Two years later, she was appointed by St Mary's Hospital in Paddington as a consultant vascular surgeon. [1] She was an honorary senior lecturer at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, which merged with the Imperial College School of Medicine in 1988. [1] [3] She remained at St Mary's for the rest of her career, while also serving as an honorary consultant in paediatric and vascular surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital. [1]Fortunately for the thousands of patients whose lives Mansfield went on to save with her pioneering vascular surgery, she was undeterred by his response. Although we were producing lots of female medical students, we were not producing lots of female surgeons,” says Mansfield. Mansfield retired from surgery in 2002. [4] She was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 2005, and was elected president of the British Medical Association in 2009–2010. [1] In 2012 she was voted one of "100 Women Who Have Changed the World" by The Independent on Sunday. [1] I would have liked children but I wasn’t able to with my first husband, so I just focused on the other things in my life,” says Mansfield.

Book Review: Life in Her Hands | The Bulletin of the Royal Book Review: Life in Her Hands | The Bulletin of the Royal

Over the past 30 years, Mansfield has somehow found time with her husband, also a surgeon, to restore a 300-year-old stone-built house in the Lake District, "very very gradually. It's been a lovely thing - just to turn away from complex medical problems to this. It's finished now." And she plays the piano and cello. To unwind? Another no. "I'm not a very stressed person. I don't have too much unwinding to do." In 1993, I was appointed professor of surgery at St Mary’s Hospital and became the UK’s first female professor of surgery. Female surgeons were rare throughout much of my career but I found that if you’re doing a job and you’re doing it well, people are not concerned whether you’re a man or a woman. Dame Averil says: “At no point did I have my sights set on the top of the ladder, or anything like it. I simply wanted to progress to the next step as I went along, one rung at a time. Averil's account shines light on a medical and societal world that has changed beyond measure, but which - as she shows through her experiences - still has a long way to go for the women finding their place within it.

Money Matters Neurodiversity Preparing for University - Subject Reading Lists Reading For Pleasure Stationery Of course, women have struggled in the past, but Mansfield, who is 65, insists that surgery can be plain sailing, the perfect career for a woman and.... I believe her. She exudes trust. She is tall, calm, imposing, charming and if I had to have an enormous five-hour, life-threatening operation, I would want her to do it. Such a reaction was, sadly, very much in keeping with the general attitude – that women must choose between marriage and career – within the medical profession at the time. While she says she experienced little discrimination within her profession, patients would often react with surprise at discovering the gender of ‘Professor Mansfield’.

Averil Mansfield publishes inspiring Trailblazing surgeon Averil Mansfield publishes inspiring

But being able to offer such a choice does not appear to be on the horizon. At present only 6.3% of female medical students take up surgery, although women make up nearly 70% of the intake at some medical schools. (The usual figure is 50/50.) The other problem was that this was the era of the mini skirt, and you can imagine what that meant.There was one man in my clinic at St Mary’s with an aortic aneurysm who stripped naked and laid on the couch for me to examine him,” recalls Mansfield. “Afterwards I said: ‘Put your clothes on and we’ll have a chat’ and he said: ‘When will I see Professor Mansfield?’