Life in Her Hands: The Inspiring Story of a Pioneering Female Surgeon

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Pioneering surgeon blazed a trail for women in medicine, becoming the UK’s first female professor of surgery.

Life in Her Hands: The Inspiring Story of a Pioneering Female

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?’ 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.” We are thrilled to announce that Katie Fulford has sold world all language rights for Life in Her Hands, the “inspirational” memoir from Professor Averil Mansfield to Claire Collins, editor at Ebury Spotlight! Publication is scheduled for February 2023. An audiobook edition, narrated by the author, will be released simultaneously by Penguin Random House Audio. 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 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:

I started the Women in Surgical Training initiative at the Royal College of Surgeons to encourage and support more women who wished to pursue the specialty. I was astonished at how many women turned up for the first meeting. It became obvious that, even at that stage, lots of women were thinking about becoming surgeons but were put off from actually doing it because they thought it just wasn’t possible. I’m pleased to see how far we’ve come now – it’s no longer cause for comment if you’re a surgeon who is a woman. Progress in the specialty And now she has retired. Will she miss it all dreadfully? Guess the answer. "No." But I suspect she will be missed.

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

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] Her parents spent years trying to deter their headstrong daughter from pursuing an ambition sparked at the age of eight as she thumbed through medical books in her local library. 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. 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.The book, Life in Her Hands, details Averil’s trailblazing career, qualifying as a surgeon in 1972, a time when just two per cent of her colleagues were female. 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. 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. One outcome is the setting up of a working group, Parents in Surgery, to come up with ways to support surgeons with children, given the anti-social hours many are expected to work, as well as frequently being on call.

Trust blog - Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

A great read. I am honoured to have worked with such a legend' David Nott'A role model for women' Independent'A wonderful read' Julian Fellowes'Remarkable' Lauren Laverne'Charming' GuardianWe were occasionally expected to travel by ambulance to a serious case and would always have a kit of tools and drugs ready for emergency calls. I’ve lived through the advent of ultrasound, CT and MRI scanning, and all have made diagnosis more reliable and help plan for surgery,” she says. 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.

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.