Miss Nicola Fearnhead

Nicola Fearnhead, BM BCh (Oxon), MA (Cantab), DM (Oxon), FRCS, FRCSEd, practises as a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon in Cambridge, with a specialist interest in advanced pelvic malignancy. She is an Elected Member of Council for the Royal College of Surgeons of England since 2022 and a Past President of the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain & Ireland (2019-2020). Current roles include Clinical Co-Lead for the National Bowel Cancer Audit, Chief External Examiner for Oxford Medical School, Trustee of Bowel Research UK, BJS Foundation Council and Trustee, and the Clinical Advisory Group for the Moondance Cancer Initiative in Wales. She is the current lead for the RCSE Emerging Leaders Programme. She represents RCSE on the National Emergency Laparotomy Audit (NELA) and the PRSB. Nicola studied pre-clinical medicine at Cambridge University and was a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford for clinical studies. Surgical training was in Bristol and Oxford, and as International Fellow at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. She was awarded the Patient Champion Award for her advocacy on patient involvement in 2017 and championed the national Delphi research collaborations in colorectal surgery and international Tripartite collaborative research initiatives. Nicola spearheaded the national patient-focussed research collaborative on goal-directed therapy for perianal Crohn’s disease with many UK and international colleagues and patients contributing to ENiGMA’s outputs. Nicola has been honoured with the Penman Visiting Professor to Cape Town University (2019), Visiting Lecturer at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and Colorectal Surgical Society of Australia and New Zealand (2019), and the 24th Lino Torres Memorial Lecture in Barcelona, Spain (2022). She has been awarded Honorary Fellowships of the American College of Surgeons (2023), American Surgical Association (2024) and American Society of Colon and Rectum Surgeons (2020), and Honorary Membership of the Colorectal Surgical Society of Australia and New Zealand (2022). She has trained over 45 Fellows, runs a broad portfolio of clinical research trials, and has published over 160 peer-reviewed publications and 15 book chapters.

Colorectal Surgery