Our Imperial / True pioneers

Dr Sue Rowley

OAM (St Mary’s Hospital Medical School 1973) GP, The Mosman Practice, Australia

What fuelled your passion at St Mary’s (now part
of Imperial College School of Medicine)?

I wanted to be a doctor for that well-known reason of wanting to help people. I felt that I had been born with ‘Reserved for Medical School’ stamped on me! During my clinical training at St Mary’s, I enjoyed the drama of being in an A&E department. Initially overawed by the sheer range of emergency presentations, I soon learned that it could be a very satisfying career once you understood and could manage these patients.

Which part of your training left the biggest impact? 

I joined ambulance crews on some 999 calls and observed what they actually did or did not do in that vital ‘Golden Hour’ [the first hour after injury]. St Mary’s allowed all medical students an elective period in their final year, so I spent part of mine in Kenya visiting the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Nairobi and observing how emergency care was delivered by plane to the rural areas.

How did you take what you learned into your career?

In 1976, I decided to work in Sydney, starting at a hospital located in a beachside suburb, where I soon observed an emergency helicopter bringing people involved in beach- and surf-related accidents to a helipad outside the department. As they only had limited first aid capabilities, I volunteered my services. Soon I was spending all my weekends alongside other volunteers at the base flying to a wide variety  of medical emergencies, and was made Medical Director for New South Wales.

In 1980, I toured the USA, Germany and Switzerland to learn more about pre-hospital care. Back in Sydney, I worked to incorporate the best of what I had seen. It was revolutionary in the 80s but today helicopters are taken for granted throughout Australia – success for us pioneers!

Dr Rowley was the first helicopter rescue doctor in Australia and the first woman appointed to the NSW Surf Lifesaving Association’s Medical Board. She was given an Order of Australia Medal in 2021 for services to medicine and emergency and rescue organisations.

Mr Myrddin Rees

OBE FRCS (Westminster Hospital Medical
School 1973) Consultant surgeon, The Hampshire Clinic

What led you to move from medicine to surgery?

When I arrived in London at 18, I was still translating between Welsh and English and was regarded by my fellow students as a bit slow. This was hard to take for someone who had won the major academic prize at his school – the Gwendraeth Valley Grammar School. The rugby team at Westminster came to my rescue. I was asked to be captain, and they became more like my adopted family. It was not until 18 months after I qualified that I realised that being a rugby captain was not enough. After watching a neurosurgeon at work, I decided to switch my focus to surgery – a decision I have never regretted.

What was the most important thing you learned at Westminster (now part of Imperial College School of Medicine)?

Rugby taught me the importance of being part of a team which has served me well, especially in the early years of establishing a nationally recognised liver surgery programme in Basingstoke. It is now accepted that the best-performing operating theatres are those with a strong team ethos, which is why I greatly support team sports for the young. When I became President of the Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery in 2006, it became clear that the individual specialist surgeons were making plans to walk into the sunset as separate organisations. It required all my experience in team building to pull them back under the umbrella.

Who was your favourite teacher?

At Westminster, we were blessed to have Professor Harold Ellis, one of, if not the best, medical teachers around. His ability to simplify any difficult topic had a big impact on me. His flamboyant presentation style, often mixed with humour when appropriate, is something I have tried to emulate over the years. I have also taken a significant part in the postgraduate teaching of safe liver surgery. I am not convinced that I have been able to match my mentor, but I am pleased to have given lectures all over the world for 30 years.

Mr Rees was presented with the Sir Clement Price Thomas Medal in 2023 in recognition of his pioneering contribution to liver surgery.

Professor Angela Vincent

(Westminster Hospital Medical School 1966) Emeritus Professor
of Neuroimmunology, University of Oxford

When did you first become interested in science?

As a teenager, I really liked science. There was no doubt that that was what I wanted to study but my parents seemed to think medicine was a more respectable profession. I don’t regret it at all because I’ve used it a lot. Medicine has made me much more able to communicate with doctors than the average scientist, who can find it quite difficult, so it was
actually very lucky.

What was it like studying something you weren’t keen on?

I was not a good medical student, but what I did learn was that there were very few medics who were scientifically orientated. There was a very good professor of medicine who took an interest in me because he happened to know my uncle, but I left without being terribly convinced about medicine, but I did a year in what was St Stephen’s Hospital in Fulham, and I enjoyed that. I was perfectly competent as a doctor at that level, but I didn’t really want to continue. I wanted to do science, and so I did a Master’s in Biochemistry at UCL.

How did you use your medical background?

After my Master’s, I took a research assistantship rather than a PhD because, by then, I had a child, and the salary came in handy for childcare. The study didn’t go anywhere, though, and after three years, Ricardo Miledi in the biophysics departmentat UCL agreed to let me work with him to explore a specific clinical disease – myasthenia gravis, which was shown by others to be caused by specific autoantibodies. Years later, at Oxford, we started identifying different antibodies in patients who
had brain disease and showed that they could also be treated with immune therapies that reduce the antibody levels. It opened people’s eyes to this sort of new concept of antibody-mediated brain disease. We have helped neurologists to consider the possibility that their patient had an autoimmune disease, and now these rare but treatable conditions
are being identified regularly.

Professor Vincent was a winner of the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2020.