Mr Tim Lees has been a consultant in Newcastle since 1995 having previously trained in Manchester, Norwich, Newcastle, Sheffield and the USA. He is also an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He qualified from Manchester University in 1984, was awarded his FRCS England in 1989 and an MD with Commendation from Newcastle University in 1993.

Within vascular surgery he has a particular interest in the management of varicose veins and complex venous disease. In association with his colleagues he has been at the forefront of the development of new techniques in the management of venous disease and the NVC is able to offer conventional surgery, radiofrequency ablation, laser ablation, and foam sclerotherapy for varicose vein treatment.

Mr Lees is committed to audit and improving clinical outcomes, and is heavily involved in a national project to audit surgical results and to publish outcomes. He has served as chairman of the Audit & Research Committee of the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland and co-chair of the UK carotid endarterectomy audit with Royal College of Physicians and VSGBI. He is the clinical lead of a vascular expert working group on coding & HRGs and council member and past secretary of the Venous Forum of the Royal Society of Medicine. He is currently the research lead for the NHS abdominal aortic aneurysm screening programme.

He has published widely in Vascular Surgery and has been principle supervisor of several Newcastle MD students.

 Professor Gerard Stansby qualified from Cambridge University and Addenbrooke’s Hospital in 1982. He carried out many junior training posts in Cambridge and the East Anglian area before moving to the Royal Free Hospital as Registrar and subsequently Lecturer in Surgery. In 1993, he went to St Mary’s Hospital in London as a Senior Clinical Vascular Fellow and, in 1994, became Senior Lecturer in General & Vascular Surgery at St Mary’s Hospital and Imperial College, London. In January 2000, he obtained his current position of Professor of Vascular Surgery at the University of Newcastle and the Freeman Hospital.

Professor Stansby is the author of more than 200 scientific articles and several books on venous and arterial diseases. He is co-chair of the TARGET-PAD group which aims to improve the profile and understanding of PAD in the UK, a Council member of the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Secretary of the Venous Forum and coordinating editor for the Cochrane Peripheral Vascular Diseases group and several medical journals. He is Chair of the NICE Quality Standards group for Venous thromboembolism, Chair of the Venous Thromboembolism clinical guideline group for NICE and was a member of group which produced the recent NICE Clinical Guideline on VTE prevention. He is Chair of North of England  Cardiovascular network group for Vascular Surgery.

His other interests include undergraduate medical education and he is the author of a best selling surgical text book for undergraduates and an external examiner for Birmingham University Medical School and University College London.

Lucy Wales qualified MBChB from the University of Bristol Medical School in 1993. She taught anatomy at Cambridge University before moving to London to continue her career in surgery and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1998.

She worked as a Lecturer in Surgery at Imperial College, London, leading to the award of a PhD in 2003 for research into preconditioning and expansive remodelling. Her specialist surgical training took place at a number of major teaching institutions in London, including Charing Cross Hospital, Hammersmith Hospital and St. George’s Hospital. She obtained a post-graduate qualification in teaching and education from Imperial College in 2007.

After spending a year at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Australia, gaining specialist experience in endovascular surgery, she was appointed to the Freeman Hospital in 2009 as consultant vascular surgeon with an endovascular interest.