Sarcomas are a rare group of cancers which should therefore be treated by a specialist team experienced in their management.

Sarcomas arise in connective tissue such as

• Muscle.
• Fat.
• Bone.

The Bristol Sarcoma Service (BSS) manages sarcomas for Bristol and the surrounding region including:

• Bath.
• Weston.
• Yeovil.
• Taunton.

Other south west regional services are currently located in Exeter and Plymouth.

The BSS is based across both North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW). The BSS predominately investigates and treats soft tissue sarcomas.

There is a weekly MDM (Multi-disciplinary team meeting) on Tuesday morning between 08:30am – 10:00am at Southmead Hospital Bristol, where each patient case is discussed by specialist:

• Radiologists.
• Pathologists.
• Surgeons.
• Oncologists.
• Clinical Nurse Specialists.

Please see the Sarcoma Core Team page for more details on our multi-disciplinary team.

After the MDM, the team attends a sarcoma clinic from 10:00am – 12:30am. During your clinic appointment you will meet with one of the consultant plastic surgeons to discuss your case. You may also meet the sarcoma clinical nurse specialists, oncologists or the specialist physiotherapist. If you are having a biopsy taken, you will meet one of the consultant radiologists during this appointment. 

Primary bone sarcomas are investigated and treated by our colleagues in Oxford. The oncologists attend the weekly Oxford MDM via video-link on Monday mornings to discuss primary bone sarcomas. One of the Oxford surgeons visits a joint clinic at Southmead Hospital once a month. One of the Oxford surgeons visits a joint clinic in Bristol once a month.

Soft Tissue Sarcomas

Plastic surgical services and retroperitoneal surgical services are performed at Southmead Hospital, Bristol. 

Oncological services, including radiotherapy and chemotherapy, are located at the Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre (BHOC). 

Other surgery such thoracic surgery is performed at the Bristol Royal Infirmary.

Gynaecological sarcomas are managed by the team at St Michael’s Hospital. 

GMC Number: 6057536

Year of first qualification: 2002, Imperial College London

Specialty: Neurology

Clinical interest: Epilepsy

Secretary: Eileen Jones

Telephone: 0117 414 6687

Dr Faulkner completed his BSc, PhD and MBBS at Imperial College, London before moving to Bristol for his Medical and General Neurology training. He then completed an Epilepsy and EEG Fellowship in Sydney, Australia. 

He was appointed as a consultant Neurologist with a specialist interest in Epilepsy and Epilepsy Surgery at North Bristol NHS Trust in 2011.

Dr Faulkner provides a full range of epilepsy services from first seizure clinics through to epilepsy surgery workup, including intracranial EEG recording techniques.

GMC Number: 3305162

Specialty: Cardiology

Telephone: 0117 414 6369

GMC Number: 3322297

Year of first qualification: 1989, University of Oxford

Specialty: Neonatal Medicine

Clinical interest: Neonatal Neurology, Cardiology, Medical Education

Secretary: Julie Deady

Telephone: 0117 414 6948

GMC Number: 4727075

Year of first qualification: 2000, Imperial College, University of London

Specialty: Radiology

Clinical interest: Cardiothoracic Imaging

Secretary: Claire Nurse

Telephone: 0117 414 9012

GMC Number: 3591583

Year of first qualification: 1992, University of Sheffield

Specialty: Trauma & Orthopaedics

Clinical interest: Arthroscopic, Replacement and Revision Hip Surgery Clinical interests: Soft tissue and Young adult hip disease, Revision arthroplasty.

Secretary: Nicola Leigh

Telephone: 0117 414 1621

Mr Stephen Eastaugh-Waring is a member of the British Orthopaedic Association, British Hip Society, Association for the Study of Medical Education & Royal Society of Medicine.

As an ex GB triathlete, he empathises and understands the desire to return to as full an activity profile as possible, and aims to achieve this for all his patients.

Mr Stephen Eastaugh-Waring has excellent results on the National Joint Registry, and is regularly one of the most productive hip surgeons in the country.

GMC Number: 3325111

Year of first qualification: 1989

Specialty: Obstetrics & Gynaecology

Secretary: Alison Hodges

Telephone: 0117 414 6748

Professor Timothy Draycott is a Consultant Obstetrician with a research interest in patient safety, quality improvement and multi-professional obstetric training.

Over the last 15 years he has led the development of a completely new academic department in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at North Bristol that is now recognised as a major international intrapartum and safety research centre – currently with 49 research team members.

He has expanded a research portfolio, successfully securing almost £4 million research funding in the last decade, leading large multi-centre NIHR portfolio randomised controlled trials (IMOX study – 6285 women) as well as leading national level studies with innovative trial designs – THISTLE study in Scotland.

With Cathy Winter, he leads the team who developed the PROMPT training programme that has been successfully implemented in over 45 countries across the world and has developed and evaluated an undergraduate PROMPT programme and also a pre-hospital programme. This work was recognised as 4* for impact by the most recent University Research Excellence Framework and the Queen’s Anniversary Award in 2014.

GMC Number: 3057603

Year of first qualification: 1985, MB ChB Bristol University Medical School

Specialty: Anaesthetics

Clinical interests: Obstetric Anaesthesia

Telephone: 0117 414 5114

Dr Fiona Donald trained in anaesthesia in Bristol, the southwest, Oxford and Geneva and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists in 1991.
She was appointed as a consultant in anaesthesia at Southmead Hospital in 1997.

Her main area of clinical interest is obstetric anaesthesia. She also has a longstanding interest in teaching and training.

She is a member of Council and Vice-President elect of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, and will take up this role in  September 2019.

GMC Number: 2822837

Year of first qualification: 1983, Oxford University

Specialty: Anaesthetics

Clinical interest: Intensive care medicine, complex ENT and urology

Telephone: 0117 414 0968

Dr Mark Dirnhuber trained in Southampton and was appointed in 1996.

He does much of his clinical work in the Intensive Care Unit but he also anaesthetises patients – especially for complex ENT and urological operations.

He has a particular interest in the basic sciences that underpin anaesthesia and spends a lot of time teaching trainees these topics.

Specialty: Anaesthetics

Telephone: 0117 414 1573