"Life in Her Hands!"

Saturday, 15th June 2024 

    Professor Dame Averil Mansfield, DBE FRCS FRCP, will be giving her trailblazing and remarkable life story at St Peter & St Paul Parish Church at 2.30pm on Saturday 15th June. She established herself as a pioneer in every sense of the word when she qualified as a surgeon in the early 1970’s. At the time, just two percent of her colleagues were female, and she was often met with surprise, bordering on disbelief and amusement, when telling people what she did.

    Dame Averil had a passion for medicine and science from the age of eight, had good support from family and mentors and become a surgeon despite challenges. She made history when she became the first ever UK female vascular surgeon and first female Professor of Surgery. She was awarded a CBE in 1999 and was President of the British Medical Association from 2009 – 2010. She founded Women in Surgery, a Royal College of Surgeons initiative to encourage more women to enter the field.  In May 2018, Dame Averil was given a NHS Heroes Award and she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours, for services to surgery and equality in medicine. It is hoped that young people considering a career in Medicine will come along to hear her inspiring talk and schools in the wider area will be receiving flyers in May.
 
    The Committee of Friends of Great Missenden Parish Church charity (Regd. No:1067435) is very pleased to host this event which will also include a full afternoon tea, a raffle and sales of home-made preserves. All proceeds will go towards the charity’s “Raise the Roof” Campaign – the large copper roof is starting to fail after nearly eighty years and the roof repairs will cost about £1/2 million!

Contact: Vivienne Davis, Hon Chairman – 01494 891312 / avd@davis.f9.co.uk
 

Post Note

This was surely our best-ever event!  Our church was packed for last Saturday’s fascinating talk by Professor Dame Averil Mansfield. Thank you to  David Gifford , whom originally asked her to come, and Dr Jo Withers gave a very warm Introduction to Averil, who has written to thank us for “a truly wonderful afternoon”!

A huge “Thank You” again to all who came and to everyone who helped to make it such a memorable afternoon: Graeme Petrie- Brown with all the Sound and technical equipment, David Harris with the Streaming of the talk, Roger Fuggle managing car parking, all the kind donors of the delicious cakes, sandwiches and savouries so greatly enjoyed, to Imogen and Hattie selling the Jams, to Esther Rose who did a splendid job with the Raffle and to everyone who helped with the tea serving and the clearance at the end.

All this helped to raise about £1,630 for church fabric repairs, which is excellent! 

The recording of the streamed talk, which includes close up of the slides and sub-titles, is available here. 

The talk starts at approximately 11 minutes into the feed.