In 1991, Women in Surgical Training (Wist) was established by the RCS to encourage women into surgery and Mansfield was its founding chairwoman. "At that time we didn't have an organisation in this college that was dedicated to encouraging women, so we began it, to show that the career and the college are open to women. That message, 'You can do it, you are not going to meet antagonism,' might be the very thing women need to hear to encourage them to try it." In the past 10 years, the number of women consultant surgeons has almost doubled; the RCS hopes that by 2009, 20% of consultants will be women. Today, 17% of surgeons are women, although male consultant surgeons still outnumber females by a ratio of 8:1. Membership of Women in Surgery, which also welcomes medical students, has grown to 6,000. Vascular surgery was fairly new when I trained in the sixties but when I watched an operation on an aortic aneurysm, I was captivated by it. I took every opportunity to develop in this area and by the time I became a consultant in 1972, I was a trained vascular and general surgeon. I did both for many years and started work at St Mary’s Hospital in the early 1980s. Women in surgery

Averil Mansfield: Britain’s trailblazing female surgeon Averil Mansfield: Britain’s trailblazing female surgeon

Perhaps most exciting of all: I learned to play the cello! I’m a good pianist and have been for quite a part of my life but I’d always wanted to play in an orchestra, so I thought I’d take up the cello. I wouldn’t say I’m a cellist at all but I play it sufficiently well to enjoy it, to play with other people, and to play in an orchestra. I play with two amateur orchestras and they give me a great deal of pleasure. It’s a lovely thing to do at the age of 80! Advice for young surgeonsWhile she says she experienced little discrimination within her profession, patients would often react with surprise at discovering the gender of ‘Professor Mansfield’. University of Liverpool graduate Averil Mansfield CBE has published the inspiring story of her journey to become the UK’s first-ever female vascular surgeon and first female Professor of surgery. And now she has retired. Will she miss it all dreadfully? Guess the answer. "No." But I suspect she will be missed. Just 2% of surgeons in the UK were women when Mansfield qualified in the early Seventies. By the Nineties, when 97% of surgeons were male, not much had changed.

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

It's jolly hard work, let's be honest about it. The commitment is quite a major one. But it's the commitment that makes it enjoyable. If I operate on a patient and it's scheduled to last an hour and it lasts for four, there's nothing I can do about that. I have to see it through to the end. To me the professional satisfaction has been caring for somebody, as far as is humanly possible, right through their illness." My mother thought I was being ridiculous, that the daughter of a housewife and a welder living in social housing could not enter the medical profession, but finally came round to the idea when she saw I wasn’t giving up.” Money Matters Neurodiversity Preparing for University - Subject Reading Lists Reading For Pleasure Stationery Dame Averil Olive Bradley DBE FRCS FRCP (née Mansfield; born 21 June 1937 [1]), known professionally as Averil Mansfield, is a retired English vascular surgeon. She was a consultant surgeon at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, central London, from 1982 to 2002, and in 1993 she became the first British woman to be appointed a professor of surgery. 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.Although we were producing lots of female medical students, we were not producing lots of female surgeons,” says Mansfield.

Life in Her Hands - Penguin Books UK

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] 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. After a formidable operating career in Liverpool and London, during which she made many enduring friendships, she went on to became the UK's first ever female professor of surgery. Life in Her Hands is the remarkable story of a truly trailblazing woman. I was expected to go down a pole into the ship to administer analgaesia before he could be rescued.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." 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?’ While sad to retire – it was a requirement of the NHS in 2002 when Averil reached 65 – she has certainly made the most of retirement. A lifelong pianist, she has since learnt to play the cello and is part of three amateur orchestras, through which she has built a busy social life.

Averil Mansfield - Wikipedia Averil Mansfield - Wikipedia

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”. Mansfield’s reputation was such that Estée Lauder and John Mortimer, of Rumpole of the Bailey fame, were among her celebrity patients. She had the honour of being a guest on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 2020, which led to her being asked to write her new autobiography, Life In Her Hands. After qualifying as a doctor in 1960, Averil trained as a general surgeon, and became a consultant in Liverpool in 1972, at a time when just 2% of surgeons were women. Professor Averil Mansfield spent over 20 years as a vascular surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital. In 1993, she became the first female professor of surgery in the UK and used her profile to encourage more women to join the profession. She served on the council of the Royal College of Surgeons and later as its vice president. She also served as president of the Vascular Surgical Society and the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and, in 1999 was awarded a CBE for services to surgery and women in medicine. In May 2018, she was given an NHS Heroes Award. Professor Mansfield talks to us about her career highlights, being a role model and how her specialty has changed over the years.However, she is enormously grateful to him for giving her three step-children and six step-grandchildren, to whom she is “very close”. Averil Mansfield, MBE, retiring professor of vascular surgery at St Mary's hospital in London, gives all the answers you don't expect. Was her career one long struggle in a male-dominated profession? "No." Has she encountered hostility from male colleagues? "No." Does she feel that she has been discriminated against? "No."