Council Members

Prof Nutting is a Consultant Oncologist at The Royal Marsden Hospital in London where he is Clinical Director of the head and neck cancer service. He is responsible for the care of over 300 patients per year with head and neck and thyroid cancer and their treatment with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

In addition, he is active in cancer research, leading a series of National clinical trials to investigate new radiotherapy treatments for head and neck cancer patients.

He has been President of the British Oncological Association, national Clinical lead for head and Neck cancer, and a member of BAHNO for 20 years.

Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon with a specialist interest in Head & Neck cancer including thyroid disease. Trained predominantly in South West of England with a one year fellowship at Sydney Head & Neck Cancer Institute under the auspices of the late professor Chris O’Brien. Has been involved in the centralisation of Head & neck services within Bristol.

Andrew is a Clinical Academic Head & Neck Surgeon (OMFS) based in the Liverpool Head & Neck Centre (LHNC). He is currently an OMFS representation on BAHNO Council (2019 - ).

His academic interests are broad and cover both HPV positive and negative Head & Neck malignancy, with a focus towards development and delivery clinical trials. He is an active member of both the NCRI H&N Clinical Group and its surgery and localised therapies (S<) subgroup. He is also a young investigator on the EORTC H&N group. Andrew is the lead for education within the LHNC, a remit which spans undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate education in Head & Neck surgery and more broadly in OMFS.

His clinical practice covers both ablative & reconstructive H&N surgery including providing support for the reconstructive component of the regional skull base service. He contributes to the Sentinel Lymph Node service at Aintree Hospital and has a clinical interest in expanding assessment and/or use of surgical technology.

David (known as “Winnie") is a consultant ENT, head, neck and thyroid surgeon at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. His clinical work centres on developing safe processes of care, reducing inequality and developing the roles of Allied Healthcare Professionals and trainee surgeons. He is currently the Health & Care Research Director for the North East and North Cumbria RRDN.

His research interests are broad but his main focus is on optimising patient centred outcomes in head and neck cancer. He has expertise in shared decision making and informed consent and co-led the development of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh “Informed Consent: Sharing the Decision” ICONS course. He also leads the Laryngeal Cancer Cohort (LARCH) which collects information on patients with cancer of the voice box; this is in collaboration with the Northern Health Science Alliance.

Stuart Winter is a consultant ear nose and throat surgeon with a clinical practice at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford. He is an Associate Professor in the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences. University of Oxford.

He is currently on the board of the BAHNO as conference organiser. He was one of the editors on the recently released 6th Edition of the Head and Neck guidelines.

He is Chief investigator on the GRRAND trial.

I’m a Maxillofacial surgeon based at Sunderland Royal Hospital. I studied Dentistry in Liverpool then Medicine in Manchester. My surgical training started in the Northwest rotation before transferring to the Nothern Deanery. I completed a TIG Head and Neck fellowship in Newcastle and Sunderland prior to starting as a consultant. I have an interest in reconstruction and research. I’m currently CI for the Litefrom trial.

Ms Clare Schilling is Associate Professor and Head of the Head and Neck Academic Centre (HNAC) in the division of surgical and interventional sciences at University College London. Clinically she is Honorary Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon at University College Hospital London.

She completed OMFS specialist training including a Head and Neck fellowship the UK as well as a clinical research PhD in novel imaging techniques for detection of metastasis in head and neck cancer.

She is Chief Investigator of NIHR funded multicentre trial, “LOOC”, for lymphatic mapping of oropharyngeal cancers. She is co-director of Headstart, the Royal College of Surgeons accredited national training program for sentinel node biopsy in oral cancer. Her research and clinical interests include fluorescence guided surgery, augmented reality surgery and quality outcome measures.

Bio to be updated

Paul Nankivell is an Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham, and Consultant ENT surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, with a tertiary head and neck/thyroid oncology and paraganglioma practice. His academic interests include head and neck premalignancy, translational research into circulating tumour DNA and clinical trials into novel biomarkers in head and neck cancer. He holds research funding from several major funding bodies.

Paul maintains a strong focus on academic leadership, heading the Academy of Medical Sciences INSPIRE programme, supervising multiple PhD students, and being the lead for ENT clinical academic training in the West Midlands. He also oversees one of the largest clinical academic training programmes in the UK as deputy director for integrated academic training at the University of Birmingham.

Innovation and training are key aspects of his practice, being director of the fellowship training programme, and director of both the European Head and Neck course and ENTUK trauma course.

Mr Ben Rymer is a Consultant Plastic Surgeon with a specialist interest in Head and Neck Cancer and Reconstruction based at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, where he is the Regional Head and Neck Cancer MDT Lead.

Following Medical School at Southampton University, he undertook training in Plastic Surgery in Birmingham, Exeter, Plymouth and Bristol. He completed a TIG fellowship in Head and Neck Surgical Oncology at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, where he benefitted from true interface training with Maxillofacial, ENT, Oncology, SLT, CNS and Dietitian colleagues.

His specialist focus is Head and Neck reconstruction, including all subsites, with a particular interest in mandibular reconstruction and methods for improving functional outcomes. He also manages complex facial skin cancer, including regional spread, and is a member of the South West Facial Palsy MDT.

Mr. John Biddlestone BA, MB, BChir, MA(Cantab), PhD, FRCS(Plast) is a Consultant Plastic Surgeon at the Canniesburn Plastic Surgery Unit, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, specialising in Head and Neck Oncology and Skin Cancer Surgery. He is a key member of the multidisciplinary team at the Institute for Neurological Sciences, working closely with Oral and Maxillofacial, ENT, and Neurosurgical colleagues, as well as oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, specialist nurses, and allied healthcare professionals to manage complex head and neck cancer cases.

He has completed two years of fellowship training in Head and Neck Surgery, along with an additional fellowship in microsurgery and facial reanimation. He has also undertaken international observerships at leading centres in North America and Australia.

As the Plastic Surgery representative on the BAHNO Council, John is committed to promoting the role of Plastic Surgery in multidisciplinary cancer treatment, enhancing national collaboration, and improving reconstructive options for patients facing complex and often disfiguring treatments.

Dr Claire Paterson is an NHS consultant clinical oncologist in head and neck cancers at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, Glasgow and honorary senior lecturer, University of Glasgow. She holds a NHS Research Scotland (NRS) Senior Fellowship. These roles have enabled her to develop and deliver clinical studies in head and neck cancer as well as contribute to several multi-centre studies as local principal investigator or UK chief investigator. She is co-founder and co-chair of the multi-disciplinary Glasgow head and neck cancer (GlaHNC) research group.

Dr Paterson is an Associate Section Editor with IJROBP. Claire has published several peer reviewed papers and recently completed a research MD at University of Glasgow. She has contributed to regional, national and international guidelines on head and neck cancer.

Dr Mehmet Sen completed specialist training in radiation oncology in Istanbul, Turkey. He subspecialised in head and neck cancer and set up a multidisciplinary academic unit in 1991 in Dokuz Eylul University Medical School in Izmir-Turkey. He was appointed as Professor of radiation oncology in 2001 and was clinical lead for the head and neck cancer unit until 2003.

He moved to the UK in January 2004 joining Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust as a Consultant Clinical Oncologist and was the lead for the nonsurgical head and neck team (2008-2019).

He contributed to the NCRI head and neck clinical studies group as a member (2006-2015) and then chair of the systemic treatments and radiotherapy subgroup (2006-2011). During this period, he also chaired the EORTC Head and Neck - radiotherapy subgroup (2011-2015)

He is currently contributing to on-going national randomised clinical trials as local PI, National lead arm, TMG member and safety chair. He is the founder and steering committee member of York Head and neck Oncology annual meeting.

He is now partially retired from his current clinical responsibilities and continues to teach and support research activities.

Consultant in Radiology

Qualifications: MD, MRes, FRCR (UK)

Dr. Abhishek Mahajan specializes in imaging for head and neck cancer, thyroid cancer, and neuro-oncology. He is currently a consultant radiologist at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, where he focuses on head and neck, neurological, skull base, and thyroid malignancies, as well as artificial intelligence in imaging. Additionally, he holds the position of honorary senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool.

Dr. Mahajan has been actively involved in research, particularly in AI-driven imaging projects, and is the principal investigator for 21 imaging studies. He is working on establishing a head and neck cancer imaging databank and research on grading extranodal extension in HPV-positive head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. With over 440 publications, he is a recognized expert in his field and is frequently invited to speak at specialist conferences.

Bio to be updated

Bio to be updated

Amy is a Clinical Oncology ST6 based in the West Midlands, she completed her medical degree at the University of Warwick in 2015 following an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Science at the University of Sheffield.

Amy undertook foundation training at Frimley Park Hospital in the South Thames deanery followed by Core Medical Training in Basingstoke, she has a strong interest in education, helping to develop and lead a Certificate in Teaching and Learning at Warwick Medical school, with continued recognition of contributions to teaching throughout her training.

Bio to be updated

Bio to be updated

Claire Barber is a Nurse Consultant specialising in Head & Neck Cancers, Thyroid Cancers and Long Term Altered Airways. She qualified as a Registered Nurse in 1991, securing a role as a Staff Nurse in ENT. Realising very quickly that she was destined to work with Head and Neck patients, Claire was accepted on a specialist English National Board training programme in Burns, Plastics and Maxillofacial Nursing in East Grinstead and went on to consolidate her practice across a number of Head and Neck Centres in Manchester. 

In 1997 she became one of the first nurses in the UK to undertake a specialist Degree in Head & Neck and on completion, was appointed as Head and Neck Cancer Nurse Specialist at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust where she remains today. Over the last 26 years Claire has elevated her practice by undertaking a Master’s degree in Advanced clinical practice and qualifying as a non-medical prescriber. Working autonomously as an independent practitioner in a rural hospital in North Devon, she engages in specialist and complex decision making, patient assessments, minor treatments and procedures and cancer follow up examinations. 

In 2022, Claire became the first female Head and Neck Nurse Consultant in the UK. Her role includes Joint Service Lead for the Head & Neck and Thyroid MDT’s and she is privileged to manage, mentor and lead a small team of specialist nurses whose drive, passion and determination never fail to inspire her. She previously set up a successful international swimming school for neck breathing patients and enjoys delivering Specialist Study Units for medical students at the Peninsula Medical School. Claire was elected as President of the British Association of Head and Neck Oncology Nurses in 2024.

Bio to be updated