2012 News

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BGGS Alumnae: Unique Achievements in Radiography

Former pupil of Bradford Girls' Grammar School, Sue Griffiths (nee Bates) has gained recognition for becoming one of only two people within the profession of therapeutic Radiography to successfully complete a PhD. The thesis, 23 published papers and a text book on Accuracy and Quality in radiotherapy describe seminal research which Sue led in the 1980s. All whilst employed in the radiotherapy department at Leeds.

This year has been declared the year of radiotherapy by CRUK of which Sue is a founder member (an invited role in 2002) and the Royal College of Radiologists (who also made Sue an Honorary member in the 1990s). Although Sue went on to A Levels, she was, at the time, considered to be wasting herself going into this profession, which now needs and Honours degree for entry as it is a highly scientific and technical job that involves patient care.

Sue, who attended Bradford Girls' Grammar School from 1958 to 1965 said "I would highly recommend it as a career choice as it will always have available jobs at qualification. The National Radiotherapy Awareness Initiative is trying to improve radiotherapy's reputation. It says radiotherapy cures more people than chemotherapy, and it is 13 times more cost effective. It can now be targeted to within millimetres (which my research contributed to) and uses computer imagery.

Surgery and radiotherapy are the main curative treatments for cancers in adults. An estimated 52% of all cancer patients in the UK should receive radiotherapy, but the actual figures fall short (England and Wales 38%, Ireland 35% , Scotland 43%) which could explain our lower cancer survival rates.

Unfortunately, when radiotherapy does hit the headlines, the story is about the very rare occasions when there have been mistakes. In reality, millions of patients are successfully treated each year with few ill-effects. In fact, radiotherapy has among the highest levels of quality assurance of all the medical specialties".