SSN operates through education days (first being the British Sarcoma Group conference and others in Scotland).
A virtual Steering Group and subgroups cater for the specific tasks. Members of this virtual Steering Group are shown below.
Clinical Lead
Louise McCullough
Sarcoma National Clinical Lead
Miss Louise McCullough, Consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeon in Aberdeen
Oncologists
Dr Aisling Hennessey
Consultant Clinical Oncologist and Edinburgh Centre Lead
Dr Ute MacGregor
Consultant Clinical Oncologist and Inverness Centre Lead – Raigmore Hospital
Dr Ioanna Nixon, PhD
Consultant Clinical Oncologist at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre
Dr Ioanna Nixon is a Clinical Oncologist specialising in the treatment of Soft Tissue Sarcomas, Bone Sarcomas and GISTS. As a Clinical Oncologist she offers both radiotherapy and drug therapies. Ioanna is also a visiting Professor at Strathclyde University.
Dr Nixon has served in national leadership roles as the Clinical Lead for the Scottish Sarcoma Network (2015-2021), as the UK Chair for the NCRI (National Cancer Research Institute), Head and Neck epidemiology and survivorship subgroup and board member of the New Drugs Committee. Ioanna is Chair of the Regional Quality Improvement Group (jointly with Dr Peter Thomson), a board member of the British Sarcoma Group and a member of the NCRI Soft Tissue Sarcoma Clinical Research Group (CSG).
Ioanna’s main research interests are novel therapies for soft tissue sarcomas, patient experience and clinical innovations. She is Principle Investigator in a number of National and International Clinical Trials and she and colleagues have a diverse research portfolio for patients with sarcoma diagnosis.
Ioanna has been awarded with a PhD in Radiotherapy, a Master in Public Health (MPH: Epidemiology) degree and is a Scottish Quality and Safety (SQS) Fellow. She holds developmental roles as an educational supervisor for junior doctors and specialty trainees in oncology and an appraiser for NHS Consultants. Ioanna is also an academic mentor for PhD students and also a mentor in National Leadership Programmes, including the Scottish Improvement Leader’s programme by NES.
In 2018 she was awarded as a Founding Fellow of Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM) for leadership and contribution to improving patient-centered care and recently as Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists (FRCR). Her team has been finalists for the BMJ Awards Cancer Team of the Year 2020.
Dr Milind Ronghe
Paediatric Oncologist – Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow
Dr Fay Tough
Consultant Clinical Oncologist and Dundee Centre Lead
Pathologists
Dr Sinclair Dundas
Research Lead Pathologist, Aberdeen
Dr Elaine MacDuff
Pathology Lead, Glasgow Queen Elizabeth University Hospital
Surgeons
Mr David Boddie
Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon at NHS Grampian
Mr Boddie graduated from Aberdeen University in 1991. After posts in Aberdeen and Edinburgh he returned for basic and higher training completing a year and a half full-time research.
Mr Peter Chong
Joint Glasgow Centre Lead Surgeon, Glasgow Royal Infirmary
Mr Stuart Hamilton
Surgeon, Livingston, St John’s Hospital
Mr Steven Lo (on sabbatical)
Joint Glasgow Centre Lead Surgeon, Glasgow Royal Infirmary
Mr Ashish Mahendra
Surgery Lead, Surgeon, Glasgow Royal Infirmary
Mr Sam Patton
Surgeon, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
Radiologists
Dr Mark McCleery
Joint Radiology Lead, Glasgow Royal Infirmary
Dr Chris Nicholas
Joint Radiology Lead, Glasgow Royal Infirmary
Clinical Nurse Specialist
Alan Abraham
Clinical Nurse Specialist, Glasgow Centre
Alan graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University in 2007 with a degree in nursing, and has worked for the majority of that time within the Orthopaedic Specialty. This is where he first came into contact with Sarcoma patients, and took over as Sarcoma Nurse Specialist in 2019. He splits his week working between the oncology team at the Beatson, and the orthopaedic team at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
Ashleigh Brown
Clinical Nurse Specialist in the orthopaedic team at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
Fiona Dawson
Clinical Nurse Specialist in the oncology team at Edinburgh Western General Hospital
Rachel Hall
Clinical Nurse Specialist, Aberdeen Centre
In 2014 Rachel started her nursing journey at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary before relocating to the beautiful Island of Orkney, where she worked as a staff nurse in theatres/outpatients and day surgery for two years. In 2016 she was then privileged to go on to work in Macmillan House at the Balfour Hospital where she specialised in providing palliative care as well as completing a chemotherapy administration course. In 2019, Rachel relocated to Aberdeen and took up a post as a staff nurse in Haematology in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. From there she progressed in her career and became a nurse practitioner at Woodend Hospital in Aberdeen where she previously worked. In February 2021 she took up a post as a clinical nurse specialist for Cancer of Unknown Primary and Sarcoma patients at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Adele Honeyman
Clinical Nurse Specialist, Dundee Centre
Jane Law
Nurse/Allied Health Professional Lead, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Glasgow Centre
Sarah Vaughan
Clinical Nurse Specialist in the orthopaedic team at Glasgow Royal Infirmary