Dr Vanessa Blair, FRACS, PhD. General, Breast, Endocrine and Skin Cancer Surgeon, Whangarei Hospital, New Zealand. Lecturer in Surgery, University of Auckland. Vanessa trained in General Surgery in New Zealand (NZ) and was made a Fellow (RACS) in 2009. At Auckland University she received the Rotary Club of Auckland Prize, awarded to the most distinguished graduate in medicine. During surgical training she did a PhD in Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer (HDGC), about which she has written several papers and book chapters and been involved in publication of NZ and international guidelines. She is on the NZ National Tumour Board for Melanoma, convened in 2012 to formulate national standards of care. After completing a fellowship in breast, endocrine and melanoma surgery, in 2011 she returned to her home province in far north NZ to take up a consultant post at Whangarei Base Hospital, which covers a population that is 32% Maori and includes rural and remote areas. Her interests centre on her 2 young sons, the small farm her husband is developing and all things culinary.