I was a Fellow in 1982 and visited surgical centres in Europe and the USA to see new techniques in breast cancer surgery. I went to well-known leading centres such as Harvard University and the University of Texas and was very well received as a Churchill Fellow. My visit to San Antonio in Texas allowed me to set up a research year funded by the UICC cancer charity located in Geneva.

As a result of what I learned on my travels, I set up a trial of a new technique in breast cancer surgery checking out the status of the armpit lymph nodes to see if they had been invaded by cancer. This trial was funded by the Medical Research Council. This technique (known as sentinel node biopsy) is now used universally in the UK and has saved the majority of women with breast cancer having all their lymph glands removed with the risk of arm swelling.

I was awarded the CBE for this pioneering work.

I am currently working on another innovation in breast cancer by developing a new technique for treating small breast cancers in the breast using microwaves to destroy the cancer via a needle in the breast without the need for surgery.