Neale, Kay: transcript of an audio interview (18-May-2016)

Abstract

Interview of Ms Kay Neale, conducted by Professor Tilli Tansey, for the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group, 18 May 2016, in the School of History, Queen Mary University of London. Transcribed by Mrs Debra Gee, and edited by Professor Tilli Tansey and Ms Caroline Overy. The project management and the technical support were undertaken by Mr Adam Wilkinson and Mr Alan Yabsley, respectively. Ms Kay Neale MSc SRN (b. 1946) qualified as a nurse at the Royal Free Hospital in 1967 and was appointed as a District Nurse in Islington in 1969. In 1974 she started to work at St Mark’s Hospital as a Research Nurse funded by the Cancer Research Campaign. She worked with Dr Michael Hill, who was studying gut chemistry and flora, initially based in Colindale but moved to the Centre for Applied Microbiological Research at Porton Down, and patients with polyposis were part of the group included in their research. In 1984 she was appointed to work alongside Dr H J R Bussey and Dr Sheila Ritchie in the Polyposis Registry, funded by the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. She gained a Master’s degree in 1985 in survey research methods and helped with the computerisation of data, collected since St Mark’s Polyposis Registry began in 1924. This unique database has provided support for both clinical and laboratory based research, including the localisation of the APC and MYH genes. She is currently employed by London North West Healthcare NHS Trust as the Manager of the Department of Inherited Intestinal Cancer Syndromes. She was a founder member of the Leeds Castle Polyposis Group (1985), which evolved into the International Society for Gastrointestinal Hereditary Tumours (2005), of which she remains the Honorary Administrative Secretary.