College Record 2013
Helen Patterson (1962–2012) My wife, Helen Patterson, who has died of cancer aged 49, was a doctor, mother, rower, marathon runner and scientist. She was extraordinary in everything she did. Latterly, Helen led the development of uro-oncological services at Addenbrooke’s hospital, Cambridge, and across the West Anglia Cancer Network. She was loved and respected for her combination of medical knowledge, clinical judgment, and honesty and empathy with patients and their families. Helen grew up on Tyneside and remained proud of her working-class geordie heritage. We met in 1980 at Churchill College, Cambridge, where she studied medicine, the first from her school to gain an Oxbridge place. She took up rowing, becoming captain of the college’s women’s rowing club. She was awarded a firstclass degree, then moved on to Wolfson College, Oxford, where she completed her medical studies, rowed for the university lightweights and undertook a placement near Juba, in what was then the south of Sudan, treating refugees from the Ugandan civil war. In 1996 Helen switched tack to undertake research in sarcoma genetics at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, gaining a PhD under Colin Cooper. Moving back to hospital medicine, she was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists in 1998, and in 2000 became a consultant in clinical oncology at Addenbrooke’s, specialising in urological cancer, with increasing emphasis on prostate cancer. During this time she had three sons with her then partner, Phil Mitchell: John in 1993 and twins, Robert and Mark, in 1996. In 2000 Helen and I renewed our college relationship, this time for good, adding a son, Isaac, born in 2002, and a daughter, Sarah, in 2004, to our family. In March 2011, a scan to investigate chronic back pain revealed two tumours in and around Helen’s spine. She knew at once that it was cancer and that there was little chance that it would be curable. A week later it was found to be metastatic angiosarcoma, a rare cancer with a desperately poor prognosis. 33
Helen was determined to make the most of the time she had left. Radiotherapy proved effective in protecting her from paralysis, and we were able to get married and go on honeymoon before she started chemotherapy. Helen had completed the London marathon in 2010, raising money for Prostate Cancer UK, and she ran the Race for Life for a second time in July 2011, for Cancer Research UK. Typically, she was disappointed that her finishing time was slightly slower than the previous year. I had nominated Helen as a torchbearer for the London Olympics, and have been honoured to carry the torch in her place and to continue raising money for cancer charities in her name. Paul Barden Helen Patterson (GS 1983-86), MA, MRCP, PhD, FRCR, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, died on 18 April 2012. Helen Patterson on her wedding day, 3 April 2011 34
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- Page 4: Contents page President and Fellows
- Page 7 and 8: Coecke, Bob, MA (PhD Free Universit
- Page 9 and 10: Rice, Ellen Elizabeth, MA, DPhil (B
- Page 11 and 12: Anderson, David Lessells Thomson, M
- Page 13 and 14: Mueller, Benito, MA, DPhil (Dip ETH
- Page 15 and 16: Mitri, Sara, (BSc American Universi
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- Page 19 and 20: Editor’s Note The Record keeps th
- Page 21 and 22: Professor Paul Aveyard, Reader in P
- Page 23 and 24: Wolfson is a creative place, and ou
- Page 25 and 26: I thank, too, all the people I work
- Page 27 and 28: (soon to be Wolfson) College, and h
- Page 29 and 30: Gertrud Seidmann (1919-2013) Gertru
- Page 31 and 32: herself. Some of the remarkable fin
- Page 33: Revd Greville Chester, a nineteenth
- Page 37 and 38: Anyone who spent time in her compan
- Page 39 and 40: emains of sustaining our present ac
- Page 41 and 42: Dr Roger Booker Professor Derek Boy
- Page 43 and 44: Dr Edward Thorogood Dr Peter Turner
- Page 45 and 46: Mr Samuel Thomas Dr Mark Tito Profe
- Page 47 and 48: Scholarships, Travel Awards and Pri
- Page 49 and 50: Sketching Wolfson’s new building
- Page 51 and 52: The superstructure has reached the
- Page 53 and 54: Wolfson’s Architecture, past and
- Page 55 and 56: 3a 3b Powell and Moya used columns
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- Page 59 and 60: Baranovic, Jelena (GS 2007-12) DPhi
- Page 61 and 62: Di Battista, Andrew (GS 2008-12) DP
- Page 63 and 64: Haase, Helen (GS 2012-13) MSt Greek
- Page 65 and 66: Khmelnitskaya, Marina (GS 2004-11)
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- Page 71 and 72: Roussos, Evangelos (GS 2000-12) DPh
- Page 73 and 74: Tuladhar, Kapil (GS 2008-12) DPhil
- Page 75 and 76: Elections and Admissions 2012-13 Em
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- Page 79 and 80: Kumpik, Daniel (DPhil Physiology, A
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- Page 83 and 84: Clubs and Societies AMREF Group The
Helen Patterson<br />
(1962–2012)<br />
My wife, Helen Patterson, who has died of cancer aged 49, was a doctor, mother,<br />
rower, marathon runner and scientist. She was extraordinary in everything she did.<br />
Latterly, Helen led the development of uro-oncological services at Addenbrooke’s<br />
hospital, Cambridge, and across the West Anglia Cancer Network. She was loved<br />
and respected for her combination of medical knowledge, clinical judgment, and<br />
honesty and empathy with patients and their families.<br />
Helen grew up on Tyneside and remained proud of her working-class geordie<br />
heritage. We met in 1980 at Churchill <strong>College</strong>, Cambridge, where she studied<br />
medicine, the first from her school to gain an Oxbridge place. She took up rowing,<br />
becoming captain of the college’s women’s rowing club. She was awarded a firstclass<br />
degree, then moved on to Wolfson <strong>College</strong>, Oxford, where she completed her<br />
medical studies, rowed for the university lightweights and undertook a placement<br />
near Juba, in what was then the south of Sudan, treating refugees from the Ugandan<br />
civil war.<br />
In 1996 Helen switched tack to undertake research in sarcoma genetics at the<br />
Institute of Cancer Research, London, gaining a PhD under Colin Cooper. Moving<br />
back to hospital medicine, she was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal <strong>College</strong> of<br />
Radiologists in 1998, and in 2000 became a consultant in clinical oncology at<br />
Addenbrooke’s, specialising in urological cancer, with increasing emphasis on<br />
prostate cancer.<br />
During this time she had three sons with her then partner, Phil Mitchell: John<br />
in 1993 and twins, Robert and Mark, in 1996. In 2000 Helen and I renewed our<br />
college relationship, this time for good, adding a son, Isaac, born in 2002, and a<br />
daughter, Sarah, in 2004, to our family.<br />
In March 2011, a scan to investigate chronic back pain revealed two tumours in<br />
and around Helen’s spine. She knew at once that it was cancer and that there was<br />
little chance that it would be curable. A week later it was found to be metastatic<br />
angiosarcoma, a rare cancer with a desperately poor prognosis.<br />
33
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