I am a transplant surgeon, Director of the Oxford Transplant Centre and Professor of Transplantation at the University of Oxford. Before taking this role in 1999, I worked in Cambridge and also, for a time, in the USA.
My first encounter with transplantation was as a very junior member of the transplant team in Cambridge almost 30 years ago. This was an exciting, pioneering time for transplant surgeons and I soon realised that this specialty combines surgical challenge and scientific developments with real benefit to many patients: it transforms the lives of (predominantly young) patients. The scene has changed over the years, some of the challenges have been overcome and others are new, but these three pillars remain – transplantation is every bit as fulfilling an activity as ever it was.
More recently, I have enjoyed not only the clinical environment but also opportunities to contribute to the national organisation of our specialty, through the BTS and in other ways. Throughout the years, I have also retained a strong commitment to research; my current interests centre on the areas of immunosuppression and organ preservation. The multi-disciplinary nature of transplantation, the application of science to clinical problems and the complex ethical and logistic challenges continue to stimulate me.
