In 1996 I was awarded the CMA Matthews fellowship by the Royal College of Surgeons of England for my research into muscle recovery after nerve injury and repair.

This help fund a two year programme of research for which I was awarded a degree of Doctor of Medicine by the University of London.

This research, whilst not seminal, afforded me an opportunity to study and investigate the factors determining outcome following nerve injury. The knowledge and skills gleaned from the research has underpinned my practise of microvascular and neural repair for the last 25 years!

The award was granted by the Royal College of surgeons of England and I was allowed to bring my father and stepmother to the college in Lincoln’s Inn fields, London.

My father was taken away from school at the age of 13 to labour on my grandfathers tenant farm for hard 10 years. At the end of this he worked as a local farm labourer then as a dairy man and then as a tractor dealer.

Through his hard work, ingenuity and endeavour he established a business in plant sales and hire, and haulage in the north of England.

He was committed to supporting his children to realise their own opportunities through an education he himself was denied.

He was convinced that such a gift could never be removed or taken away. If it were not for him I and my siblings may never have realised our true potential.

My father  is now 90 years of age!