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Victoria Jane (Vicky) Forster is an English cancer researcher and science communicator. As of 2022 she is Patient and Community Engagement Lead at Women's College Hospital in Toronto.[1][2]

Education

Forster grew up in Chelmsford, Essex. She was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia aged 7.[3] She became interested in scientific research whilst at hospital, and went on to study biomedical science at the Durham University.[3][4] She graduated from Durham University in 2008.[5] Forster completed a PhD at Newcastle University with James Allan and Olaf Heidenreich.[3][6] On the day she finished her PhD, she tweeted, Dear Cancer, I beat you aged eight and now I’ve got a PhD in cancer research, which became a viral post.[7][8]

Career

Forster used the media attention to praise where she worked, the Northern Institute for Cancer Research, Newcastle upon Tyne.[7] Here she concentrated on leukemia caused by mutations in DNA.[7]

In 2014 Forster was a British Science Association Media Fellow.[9][10] That year, she spoke at TEDx Jesmond Dene about the legacy of Janet Rowley.[11] In 2015 she won the Communications and Brand Ambassador Prize from Cancer Research UK.[12] She appeared in the science communication project Soapbox Science.[13] Forster was a 2017 TED Global Fellow researching paediatric cancer.[14][15] Her TED talk, What can cancer survivors teach us about cancer treatment, was in Arusha, Tanzania.[16] She was listed in the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30[17] and was part of the BBC's 100 Women science week.[18] She has written for The Times, The Conversation, Forbes Health and The Guardian.[19][20][21][22] She is a member of the Society of The International Society of Paediatric Oncology.[23]

She completed her post-doc at The Hospital for Sick Children. Her research focussed on the rare genetic disorder biallelic mismatch repair deficiency.[24] She now works at Women's College Hospital, Toronto.[25]

References

  1. ^ ""Dear Cancer, I beat you aged eight and today I got my PhD in cancer research"". Cancer Research UK - Cancer News. 12 December 2012. Retrieved 11 May 2024.
  2. ^ "Cancer survivor Vicky Forster hopes to find a cure". BBC News. 5 July 2012. Retrieved 11 May 2024.
  3. ^ a b c Thunder, Jamie (30 June 2012). "Woman fights cancer as a patient - and then as a scientist". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  4. ^ "Dear Cancer, I beat you aged eight and today I got my PhD in cancer research". Cancer Research UK - Science blog. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  5. ^ "Victoria Forster". The Conversation. 7 June 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  6. ^ Jane, Forster, Victoria (2012). AML1/ETO promotes a mutator phenotype in t(8;21) acute myeloid leukaemia (Ph.D). University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.{{cite thesis}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ a b c "Dear Cancer - Dr Vicky Forster's story". futurefund.co.uk. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  8. ^ "Ex-patient heads cancer cure bid". BBC News. 6 July 2012. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  9. ^ "Victoria Froster – Our_Futures". ourfutures.co. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  10. ^ "Media Fellow alumni". British Science Association. 8 June 2021.
  11. ^ TEDx Talks (23 July 2014), Dissecting DNA to cure cancers - the legacy of Dr. Janet Rowley | Victoria Forster | TEDxJesmondDene, retrieved 27 March 2018
  12. ^ "Communications and Brand Ambassador Prize". Cancer Research UK. 29 October 2015.
  13. ^ Soapbox Science (29 June 2015), Dr Vicky Forster on being a Soapbox Scientist, retrieved 27 March 2018
  14. ^ "Get to know the extraordinary new class of TED Fellows". TED Fellows. 21 August 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  15. ^ "Vicky Forster awarded TEDGlobal 2017 Fellowship". British Science Association. 24 May 2017.
  16. ^ TED Archive (27 February 2018), What can cancer survivors teach us about cancer treatment? | Victoria Forster, retrieved 26 March 2018
  17. ^ "Victoria Forster". Forbes. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  18. ^ "Child cancer survivor fights for better treatment". BBC News. 10 November 2017.
  19. ^ Forster, Victoria. "Victoria Forster". Forbes. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  20. ^ Forster, Vicky (30 August 2014). "Childhood cancer survivors face risk of early death". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  21. ^ "Victoria Forster". The Conversation. 27 November 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  22. ^ Forster, Victoria (4 July 2016). "Why Brexit is bad news for cancer research". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  23. ^ "Who is behind the Blog?". The International Society of Paediatric Oncology. Archived from the original on 4 July 2018. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  24. ^ Children, The Hospital for Sick. "Profile of Victoria Forster". www.sickkids.ca. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  25. ^ "New job at Women's College Hospital in Toronto". Dr Victoria Forster. 18 July 2022.

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