Life in Her Hands is the remarkable story of a truly trailblazing woman. 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. A male visitor at St Mary’s was even more blunt, after asking Mansfield what job she did: “‘A woman cannot be a surgeon,’ he replied, and I said, ‘Well, I am,’ with a laugh. He said, ‘Then you must be very good.’” From 1st July 2021, VAT will be applicable to those EU countries where VAT is applied to books - this additional charge will be collected by Fed Ex (or the Royal Mail) at the time of delivery. Shipments to the USA & Canada: 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?’ Mansfield’s gratitude to the supportive colleagues and superiors she encountered – first at Liverpool’s Broadgreen Hospital and later at Hillingdon Hospital and St Mary’s Paddington, in London – was magnified when she heard evidence given to the Royal College of Surgeons Working Party on discrimination in surgery in 2021.

Averil Mansfield publishes inspiring Trailblazing surgeon Averil Mansfield publishes inspiring

Fortunately for the thousands of patients whose lives Mansfield went on to save with her pioneering vascular surgery, she was undeterred by his response. The 'audience' of shipworkers delighted in telling me that there were rats the size of dogs down in the grain. On one occasion, we were responding to a man who had fallen into the hold of a grain ship and broken his leg. She founded Women in Surgery, a Royal College of Surgeons initiative to encourage more women to enter the field. [5] In May 2018, she was given a NHS Heroes Award. [5]

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However, she is enormously grateful to him for giving her three step-children and six step-grandchildren, to whom she is “very close”. Averil’s book will be published today, Thursday 23 February, by Ebury Publishing. You can find out more here

Averil Mansfield - Wikipedia

One of the reasons I enjoyed writing the book is that it will be a memento for them,” says Mansfield. 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. After retiring in 2002, she became chair of the Stroke Association, helping to improve the quality of stroke services throughout the country, and was elected President of the BMA in 2009.She received little encouragement from her teachers, either, and is amused by the memory of one school report that said she was ‘no good at sewing’, given what an expert in suturing she became.

Averil Mansfield | Waterstones Life in Her Hands by Averil Mansfield | Waterstones

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.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. 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.

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

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. 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] The other problem was that this was the era of the mini skirt, and you can imagine what that meant. She was outraged when the Dean of St Mary’s, Professor Peter Richards, issued a statement that she was appointed “purely and only on merit”. Averil said: “It suddenly must have occurred to him, ‘Oh, perhaps everyone will think we are giving her the job because she is a woman’.”

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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. Averil Mansfield was an ambitious and talented young doctor when she announced, to a senior surgeon, her plan to marry her architect boyfriend.