The Polyposis Registry staff provide information for patients and their families at St Mark’s Hospital.
The Polyposis App
We have a special Polyposis App which guides clinicians and patients to make informed decisions. It can be found at the following address: https://polypapp.stmarksnhshospital.org.uk
To add the app to your iPhone to your Home Screen, go to the website in Safari and tap the ‘Share’ button. Tap ‘Add to Home Screen’. It will appear as an icon on your Home Screen. Clicking it will go directly to the app.
To add the app to your Android Home Screen, go to the website in Google Chrome and tap the ‘3 dots’ button in the top right. Tap ‘Add to Home Screen’. It will appear as an icon on your Home Screen. Clicking it will go directly to the app.
Polyposis patients have unique needs, which are not best met through a conventional model of care. They have many social and family concerns that need sensitive handling. As their families grow up, they need access to advice and experience in managing various challenging periods, particularly in teenagers who have the added burden of coping with potential or known polyposis.
Vicky Cuthill
Consultant Nurse/Manager of the Polyposis Registry and Family Cancer
Vicky obtained her BSc(Hons) Nursing Studies from King’s College, London before specialising in intensive care nursing and then transferring into the field of Coloproctology. Initially she worked at The Royal London Hospital, gaining experience in benign colorectal conditions and undertaking ano-rectal physiology and biofeedback. She then moved to The Homerton Hospital as the Colorectal Cancer nurse specialist prior to becoming a Nurse Practitioner in The Polyposis Registry.
Vicky was appointed as Lead Nurse/Manager of The Polyposis Registry and Family Cancer Clinic following Kay Neale’s retirement in November 2016. As a nurse practitioner, Vicky has undertaken various training (e.g. physical assessment and independent prescribing) to be able to carry out extended roles and completed an MSc in Genomic Medicine in July 2019, obtaining a distinction. She now divides her time between her work as a nurse practitioner, running nurse-led clinics, both in outpatients and over the telephone and Registry/Family Cancer Clinic management.
Introduction to the Polyposis Department
Professor Sue Clark
Consultant Colorectal Surgeon & Director of the Polyposis Registry
Sue Clark is the Clinical Director of the Polyposis Registry. She trained in medicine at Cambridge University and St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School in London. She spent two years in full time research at St Mark’s Hospital with an Imperial Cancer Research Fund Fellowship. She was based in the Polyposis Registry and worked on various clinical aspects of desmoid disease in Familial Adenomatous Polyposis as well as studying the genetic changes within these rare tumours.
She spent three years as a consultant at the Royal London Hospital before returning to St Mark’s. During this time Sue set up a Family Cancer Clinic to provide services for inherited or potentially inherited colorectal cancer in the North East London Cancer Network.
Polyps
FAP: Familial adenomatous polyposis
Surgery in FAP
Colectomy with ileorectal anastomosis (IRA)
Restorative proctocolectomy / Pouch operation
Desmoid tumours
Dr Andrew Latchford
Consultant Gastroenterologist and Assistant Director of the Polyposis Registry
Andrew Latchford is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at St Mark’s Hospital and Assistant Director of the Polyposis Registry with a specialist interest in upper GI endoscopy.
Andrew Latchford’s research interests include the study of desmoid disease and duodenal cancer in patients with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP).
Serrated polyposis syndrome
Warren Hyer
Consultant Paediatrician and Consultant Paediatric Gastroenterologist
Warren Hyer is the Paediatric and Adolescent Gastroenterologist at St Mark’s Hospital with clinics in paediatric inflammatory bowel disease and paediatric nutrition and allergy. He has published widely on polyposis syndromes in children and is the lead clinician for the UK paediatric polyposis service.
At what age can we test a child for polyposis syndrome?
How can we undertake colonoscopy with children?
Jackie Hawkins
Paediatric Polyposis Nurse Practitioner
Jackie Hawkins is a Paediatric Nurse Practitioner specialising in caring for children in families with a polyposis syndrome. She qualified as a Children’s Nurse in 1991 and has worked at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London where she achieved a BSc in Child Health and her interest in paediatric gastroenterology began. Jackie has also worked in general paediatrics where she managed the general paediatric ward and Day care unit at Northwick Park Hospital before returning to gastroenterology as a research nurse for an International study based in the Polyposis Registry.
Since April 2014 Jackie has been working as the paediatric nurse developing the service and looking after children and ‘young adults’ with polyposis syndromes. Jackie sees children with their parents before their surveillance procedures to assess and fully prepare them and sees children and their families in her own clinics and also visits them on the wards, following procedures and surgery. She is currently undertaking an MSc in the Advanced Children’s Nurse Practitioner programme.