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Under the Knife

A unique medical memoir: the inspiring story of a woman who experienced breast cancer both as a surgeon and a patient

Publication date: 06 July, 2023
Status: Published
Book: Paperback
Regular price £12.99
Regular price £12.99Sale price £12.99

Description

Dr Liz O’Riordan is a breast cancer surgeon who has battled against social, physical and mental challenges to practise at the top of her field. Under the Knife charts Liz’s incredible highs: performing like a couture dressmaker as she moulded and reshaped women’s breasts, while saving their lives; to the heart-breaking lows of telling ten women a day that they had cancer.

But this memoir is more than just an eye-opening look at the realities of training to be a female surgeon in a man’s world. In addition to this high-powered, high-pressured role, Liz faced her own breast cancer diagnosis, severe depression and suicidal thoughts, in tandem with commonplace sexual harassment and bullying. And by revealing how she coped when her life crashed around her, she demonstrates there is always hope.

'Gave me a real insight into what it takes to become a surgeon, and how hard it is to be a breast cancer patient when you know far too much about it' Jane Garvey

About the Author

Liz O'Riordan

Liz went to medical school in Cardiff in 1998 and trained in South Wales and East Anglia for twenty years until she made it as a consultant breast surgeon in 2013. She spent her days treating women with breast cancer and loved her job. After getting breast cancer twice, she was forced to retire in 2018 and has been busier than ever forging a new career from her home in Suffolk.

She wrote The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer: How to Feel Empowered and Take Control (Vermillion, 2018) with Prof Trisha Greenhalgh to give women answers to all the questions she had as a patient. She speaks all over the world about resilience and how to improve patient care. Last year, she launched a podcast, Don’t Ignore the Elephant, to help more people talk about taboos like sex and death.

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