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Notice of BOPSS member Helen Herbert’s passing

Many of you will already know that very sadly Helen Herbert, Consultant Oculoplastic Surgeon and long time BOPSS member, died last year. Her friend and colleague Julia Sen has kindly prepared the following.

Helen Herbert Eulogy

B: 6th December 1969 D: 1st December 2024

One of four sisters, Helen was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland but the family moved to South Africa when she was 4 and later to rural Kenya, where the medical work her parents undertook was the likely inspiration that led Helen to set her sights on a career in medicine at an early age. 

She undertook undergraduate medical training at St. Mary’s, London, followed by Ophthalmology training in Cambridge, Liverpool and Moorfields. It was whilst working in Cambridge that she met her future husband Ed, a fellow Ophthalmic trainee. In 2007 Helen was appointed Consultant at Bristol Eye Hospital, where she led the tertiary Orbital and Thyroid Orbitopathy service for the South West region, became Specialty Tutor at Bristol Eye Hospital, regional representative for BOPSS in 2011 and organiser of the 2013 BOPSS annual meeting. She subsequently took a Consultant post at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton and the Nuffield Hospital in Staplegrove where she worked for the final 12 years of her career. Following her cancer diagnosis she continued to work for as long as she could, whilst also supporting her increasingly frail parents in their final months. She fought her cancer with immense courage and stoicism and it was with great sadness that she ceased practicing the vocation that she loved as a result of her deteriorating health.

Helen was passionate about sharing her knowledge and was a patient and generous trainer. Many BOPSS members will have been the beneficiaries of her teaching and those of us fortunate enough to have worked with her will remember her with admiration and fondness.

As a friend, colleague and teacher, Helen will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and best wishes are with her husband Ed and children Alice and Thomas at this time.


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