Post by Fatima Elmi

Last month I had the pleasure of serving as Programme Lead for the UCL Women in Surgey (WINS) National Conference 2025! After two years of working with the WINS team, it was incrediblly rewarding to host yet another successful conference, welcoming over 350 delegates across both years. This year’s theme, ‘Redefining Surgical Borders: Transcending Surgical Boundaries’ formed an inspiring programme. I organised a panel themed “Surgey without borders” featuring Ms Sarah Phillips, Ms Guldzhan Vorona, Ms Seema Dutta and Ms Dhivya Chandresekaran who shared isightful reflections of their respective experiences working abroad. This was followed by an interactive Q&A and thoughtful discussion on the future of global surgery. Maintaining the momentum on Day 1, delegates selected from a range of workshops including basic & advanced suturing, CST portfolio run by Nicola Newall and anatomy & art. To conclude the day, I was once again delighted to host Mr Debashis. B.Ghosh, who delivered an insightful talk on breast surgery. We were also honoured to hear from Professor Scarlett McNally, who shared her journey into orthopaedics, leadership and some high yeild orthopeadics content! Day 2 began with an inspiring address by Ms Cinzia Sammartino, “Empowerement through choice”, where she discussed her journey into transplant surgery and the process of establishing your own clinic. The afternoon featured a series of workshops of which I’d like to thank Mr Aaron Goh and Ms Sehahta for leading an incredible vascular anastomosis workshop, the VRiMS Women in Surgery team for a highly engaging hands-on session and our very own Scarlett Gunn for leading the laparoscopic workshop. We were then delighted to conclude the weekend with an array of award-winning speakers, including Ms Evelyn Mensah, Ms Houriya Kazim , Dr. Nadine Hachach-Haram FRCS (Plast), BEM and Ms Evelyn Ong, whose talks were both insightful and though-provoking. Leading and overseeing the entire weekend was a rewarding experience, however, the true highlight for me was reading the feedback - seeing delegates enjoy their time with us, share meaningful insights and leave feeling inspired. It was equally encouraging to receive such positive feedback from our speakers and surgeons, many of whom expressed their enthusiasm to return and be involved in future WINS events. I would like to thank Vaishvi Dalal for organising the speed mentoring sessions which provided a fantastic opportunity for the delegates to engage with surgeons in smaller groups. I would also like to extend my thanks to the entire UCL Women in Surgery team - everything ran seamlessly which would not have been possible without you! Best of luck to the next WINS team!!!