The Team
Prof. Mark Whiteley MS FRCS (Gen) FCPhleb Consultant
Mark Whiteley is a Consultant Vascular Surgeon specialising in walk-in, walk-out surgery for varicose veins. He trained at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London and was a lecturer in surgery at Oxford University from 1995 to 1998. Mark was appointed Consultant Vascular Surgeon in 1998 and performed the first endovenous “keyhole” surgery for varicose veins in the UK in March 1999. As the founder of The Whiteley Clinic and The Whiteley Protocol, his aim was to bring the very best treatments for varicose veins and vein problems, such as thread veins and leg ulcers, to the UK public.
The Whiteley Protocol is now adopted by all surgeons treating varicose veins within The Whiteley Clinic. Mark Whiteley and his team have been at the forefront of developments in this field over the last decade and have won international, national and regional prizes for their research into vein treatments.
Mark also has a special interest in the treatment of excessive sweating (Hyperhidrosis) having named and performed the first UK Laser Sweat Ablation (LSA) procedure, to treat under-arm sweating, in March 2009 http://lasersweatablation.blogspot.com
In addition to his strong background in medical research, Mark Whiteley is committed to teaching and training, running regular courses for thread vein and varicose vein treatments at The Clinical Exchange.
Details of Mark Whiteley’s career can be found on www.MarkWhiteley.co.uk
Mr Barrie Anthony Price MD MS FRCS FCPhleb Consultant
Barrie Price was born in Birmingham and educated at Central Grammar School for Boys, Birmingham. His medical training was undertaken at Guys Hospital in London, where he graduated in 1977. After progressing to his first surgical trainee job at the Isle of Thanet Hospital in Margate, he moved on to a registrar rotation in Newcastle-upon-Tyne where he studied for, and successfully passed, his exams to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Edinburgh.
Later given the opportunity to spend a year living in New York City, he worked at Downstate Medical Center, where his research led to a Master of Surgery Thesis. On returning to England, he completed his Newcastle rotation in Cardiothoracic Surgery, before his next post as a registrar in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire where he spent eighteen months.
Barrie joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1985 and received further training, as a Senior Registrar, at the Queen Elizabeth in Woolwich, Kent and Canterbury Hospital and later St Bartholomew’s Hospital London, where he was appointed Consultant in 1990 and where further research resulted in a Doctor of Medicine Thesis. He also served in Berlin, Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Macedonia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Kosovo, the Falkland Islands and Kuwait, as well as units in the UK. His final posting was at the Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit, at Frimley Park Hospital, where he held a substantive Consultant Vascular Surgeon post and an Honorary Consultant position in the NHS.
Following a six-month sabbatical at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia, Barrie left the Services in 2001 to take up full time independent practice. He became one of the first Consultants to join The Whiteley Clinic and has, since then, specialised completely in venous surgery, adopting The Whiteley Protocol and having given up all other areas of vascular work over time.
Mr Price is married with two daughters; Lucy 29 and Rachel 27 and two sons; Jonathan 21 and Benjamin 19. His wife, Jane, a former paediatric nursing sister, now looks after Barrie, two unruly boys and their welsh terrier Dilys! Mr Price is a passionate football supporter and a long suffering follower of Birmingham City. His other interests include drawing and painting, listening to classical music and reading. Golf is an occasional pastime but his handicap remains stubbornly high because of a lack of time to practice!
Mr Mark Pemberton MA MBBS MS FRCS FCPhleb Consultant
Trained at King’s College, London and having qualified in 1986, Mark Pemberton gained his extensive experience in vascular surgery in hospitals in Leicester, Nottingham and St Mary’s Hospital in London.
Mark joined the Whiteley Clinic in 2008, adopting the Whiteley Protocol to treat his varicose vein patients and now carries out regular local anaesthetic operating lists at the clinic. He also continues to work in the NHS, at the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, where he was appointed Consultant Vascular Surgeon in 1998 and St Mary’s Hospital in Portsmouth.
A lover of classical music, Mark is a keen violinist who lives in West Sussex with his wife and children.
Dr David Beckett MBBS FRCR FCPhleb Consultant
David Beckett is an interventional radiologist with a special interest in minimally invasive vascular procedures. Having trained at St Georges Medical School and qualifying in 2000, David went on to gain his radiology experience in hospitals in Birmingham and Sheffield. He spent 2 years as an Endovascular Fellow at the Sheffield Vascular Institute before being appointed Consultant Interventional Radiologist at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital in 2008.
David joined The Whiteley Clinic in early 2010, adopting the Whiteley Protocol to treat his varicose vein patients. He conducts regular local anaesthetic operating lists at the clinic, whilst also continuing his work within the NHS.
A lover of many dangerous activities, David lists paragliding, speed-boating and cycling amongst his pastimes!
Dr Previn Diwakar BSc MBBS MRCS (Ed) FRCR FCPhleb Consultant
Previn Diwakar was born in Glasgow and grew up in Kent. He qualified in Medicine from Charing Cross & Westminster Medical School. He trained as a Plastic Surgeon in Salisbury and Chelmsford before specialising in Endovascular Interventional Radiology at Barts & The Royal London Hospital. He is a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists.
He was appointed as a Consultant Endovascular Interventional Radiologist at the Kent & Canterbury Hospital in 2007. He is currently Clinical Lead for Interventional Radiology at this internationally respected unit, at the cutting edge of endovascular therapies.
Previn believes The Whiteley Protocol offers patients the best possible outcomes and has adopted the protocol to treat his varicose vein patients at The Whiteley Clinic since the beginning of 2012.
He is married to Lisa and has a 2 year old son, Oscar. Previn has a wide range of hobbies outside his work including football and motorsport. At home he loves cooking for friends and family.
Dr Archie Speirs BSc MBBS MRCP FRCR FCPhleb Consultant
Archie Speirs qualified from St George's Hospital, London in 1999 and worked for 2 years in Sydney, in Acute and Intensive Care medicine. Returning to the UK, he gained membership of the Royal College of Physicians in 2004 and following Radiology training he became a fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists in 2008.
Archie is currently an Interventional Radiology Consultant at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, having completed fellowships at both Guys & St Thomas' and Imperial NHS Hospitals.
With a special interest in the vascular therapies that have been developed at The Whiteley Clinic, for the minimally invasive treatment of varicose veins, Archie joined the Clinic in early 2012, adopting The Whiteley Protocol to treat his patients.
Archie enjoys spending time with his young family and for several weeks a year he travels to North West Wales, to enjoy its rugged coastline, fish, forage and find the very occasional wave.
Dr Andrew P Willis BSc MBBS MRCS FRCR FCPhleb Consultant
Andrew Willis is a Consultant Interventional Radiologist with a special interest in venous intervention and embolisation techniques. Having trained at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School qualifying in 1997 he completed basic surgical training in London, Essex and Cheltenham and subsequently Radiology training, including an Interventional Radiology fellowship, in Birmingham.
Andrew is a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London and a Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists. He was appointed a Consultant Interventional Radiologist at University Hospital Birmingham and the Birmingham Children's Hospital in 2008. Andrew has developed an interest in minimally invasive venous techniques including the endovascular treatment of varicose veins and passionately believes that The Whitely protocol offers the very best in care for patients with varicose veins.
Andrew is a father of three boys Jacob aged 11, Zak aged 7 and Adam aged 5. They all love football and Andrew runs Meadow Park, a local youth football team. They are all devoted Birmingham City fans, however, they rarely get to see their beloved team play these days, as weekends are spent at the Birmingham City training ground, where Jacob and Zak are signed to the football academy.
Victoria Smith BSc (Hons) ITEC VTCT- Director of Aesthetics
After graduating from the University of Gloucestershire in June 2002 with a Degree in Community Studies with Combined Studies (Sociology and Psychology), Victoria took a temporary position at the Royal Surrey County Hospital as a Health Care Assistant in the day surgery operating theatre.
Having always been fairly squeamish at even the thought of operating procedures and blood, she surprised herself by enjoying the atmosphere of working in the theatre and also being part of a team of people who helped and looked after patients during what could be a very difficult and stressful time for them.
Victoria always thought she would pursue a career in social work but her experience in the operating theatre and then spending three years working as a Sales Manager for a company selling websites to the medical profession led her to reassess her plans.
"I decided that I wanted to work in a medical environment as an aesthetics practitioner. This would allow me to incorporate my interest in medicine and aesthetics, along with my love of working and dealing with people from all walks of life."
As Victoria did not train to be a nurse, she returned to College in order to obtain the relevant Diplomas in Anatomy and Physiology and Beauty before opening Bella Vou, a beauty clinic, in 2005. Whilst running this very successful beauty clinic, she continued with her training courses and, over a couple of years, gradually phased out the more traditional beauty treatments replacing them with more ‘aesthetic’ related procedures.
In February 2008, Victoria waved goodbye to Bella Vou and created Absolute Aesthetics. Now a division of The Whiteley Clinic, Absolute Aesthetics offers patients of whole host of non-surgical and minor surgical aesthetics treatments ranging from body sculpting procedures to facial fillers.
Victoria enjoys dancing, exercise, hula-hooping(!), cookery and spending time with her family.
Bryn Edwards – Director of Finance
Bryn Edwards qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloittes. After qualification he spent several years as Chief Accountant with 2 public companies. He then joined Ernst and Young as a management consultant, and was appointed to create a new consulting division in Singapore, and then on to become Corporate Planning Director of Singapore Airlines.
On his return to the UK he was appointed Group Managing Director of a travel tour operator, and then on to become Operations Director for a major Swedish retail company. More recently he has managed his own consulting business specializing in business planning and fund raising for SME`s.
His biggest interest outside business is the Arsenal.
Debra Kehoe – Practice Manager
Previously a registered general and sick children’s nurse, Debra trained and worked for many years at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street.
She later established and ran her own successful training company for several years before moving into a senior management position within a large College of Further Education.
With a desire to be back in a medical setting whilst utilising her business management skills, Debra joined The Whiteley Clinic as Practice Manager in early 2007.
Judy Holdstock - Chief Sonographer
Judy is from the North East of England where she trained in radiography in the early 1980’s and gained a post-graduate qualification in Diagnostic Ultrasound in 1989. In 1990 she became Chief Sonographer at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle before moving to Tasmania, Australia as Chief Sonographer at the Royal Hobart Hospital. On return to the UK in 1998, Judy became Ultrasound Superintendent at The Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford where she met Prof. Mark Whiteley and set up a vascular ultrasound service.
Judy and Mark performed the UK’s first minimally invasive varicose vein procedure in March 1999. Their mutual interest in diagnosis and treatment of complex varicose veins led to the inception of The Whiteley Clinic in 2003. Judy is now Chief Sonographer at the Whiteley Clinic and has a specialist interest in the diagnosis of pelvic and ovarian varicose veins in addition to ultrasound guidance of minimally invasive varicose vein treatment.
Charmaine Harrison - Sonographer
Charmaine is a New Zealander who trained in Diagnostic Radiography at Waikato Hospital in 1979. On moving to Australia in the late 1980’s she did a graduate diploma in Medical Ultrasound and qualified in 1994. After 11 years as the chief Sonographer at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne she married and moved to the UK.
After 2 years as an ultrasound applications specialist with Philips Medical systems she came to work with the team at the Whiteley clinic in March 2004. As well as a specialist interest in vascular ultrasound and venous procedures she has retained her experience in musculoskeletal ultrasound and gynaecological pathology.
Tim Fernandez-Hart - Sonographer
Tim graduated with a degree in Genetics from Newcastle University in 2000. He followed this up with an M.Sc. in Industrial Biotechnology and a three year research post studying the genetic basis for Lupus at Imperial College London. During this time he felt that he wanted to spend less time in the lab, and spend more time with patients. To achieve this transition he took up a trainee Vascular Scientist post at Charing Cross Hospital in 2005. He gained an M.Sc. in Vascular Ultrasound from King's College in 2008 and became an accredited Vascular Scientist in 2009. He spent two more years working full time in the NHS before moving to the Whiteley Clinic in 2011.
Tim is a keen runner and barefoot running evangelist.
Sarah Moh - Lymphoedema Therapist
Sarah moved from Malaysia to the UK in 1973. She trained originally as a psychiatric nurse at Coldeast Hospital in Hampshire and later moved to Horton Hospital in Surrey.
Whilst Sarah's children were growing up, she decided to pursue an alternative career as a therapist, specialising in aromatherapy, reflexology and remedial massage. She also volunteered at the Fountain Centre, based at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, where she underwent lymphoedema training in the Le Duc method.
Sarah joined The Whiteley Clinic in 2003 and works closely with the vascular team, specialising in the treatment of venous ulcers and lymphoedema. Sarah offers a range of treatments to support the management of primary and secondary lymphoedema, including treatment of those patients suffering from cellulitis and post-surgery swelling.
Sarah is married with 3 daughters and enjoys badminton, walking and going to the gym.
More of the Team
Carrie Wheeler – Theatre Sister
Dee Kerrigan – Clinic Nurse
June Richards – Clinic Nurse
Susan Ostler – Clinic Nurse
Sam Milam - Health Care Assistant
Barbara Weiss - Finance Manager
Maureen Harvey - Accounts Assistant
Karen Bowden – Accounts Assistant
Denise Rogers - Administration
Brenda Holman - Administration
Karen Priestley - Administration
Joanne Miethke - Administration
Matt Jago - IT Manager
Dennis Gallone – Digital Design Manager
Jake Robbins – IT Assistant
Juley Yeates – Secretary