Sheila Callender
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Sheila Theodora Elsie Callender (5 April 1914 – 17 August 2004) was a British physician and haematologist. She spent the majority of her career at
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
, and has been credited with helping to establish haematology as a distinct medical discipline.


Early life and education

Callender was born on 5 April 1914 in
Sidcup Sidcup is an area of south-east London, England, primarily in the London Borough of Bexley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, bordering the London Boroughs of London Borough of Bromley, Bromley and Royal Borough of Greenwich, Greenwich. It was ...
, Kent, to Thomas Marshall Callender, a
general practitioner A general practitioner (GP) is a doctor who is a Consultant (medicine), consultant in general practice. GPs have distinct expertise and experience in providing whole person medical care, whilst managing the complexity, uncertainty and risk ass ...
, and Charlotte Elizabeth Marie Rose (née Hoysted). Her mother and father were of Irish and Scottish descent respectively. She attended secondary school at the Godolphin School in
Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...
. She attended the
University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...
from 1932, earning a BSc in 1935 and an MBChB in 1938. Upon her latter graduation, she received a gold medal recognising her as the best student of her year. She graduated with an MD in 1944 for her research on
anaemia Anemia (also spelt anaemia in British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen. This can be due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin availab ...
during pregnancy.


Career

Callender began her career as a junior doctor at Dundee Royal Infirmary. In 1940, she was appointed to the Scottish Blood Transfusion Service as an assistant in pathology and medical officer. She worked at
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
from 1942 to 1946 as a house officer and research assistant. In 1946, she received a fellowship from the
Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...
to conduct research in
haematology Hematology ( spelled haematology in British English) is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the cause, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases related to blood. It involves treating diseases that affect the production ...
in
St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...
, until 1948. Upon her return to the United Kingdom, she was appointed reader and later a consultant physician at Oxford's Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, where she spent the rest of her career. She was made a
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of ph ...
in 1962 and awarded a
DSc DSC or Dsc may refer to: Education * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dyal Sin ...
by Oxford University in 1970. She has been recognised as one of a group of physicians in the United Kingdom and North America who helped to establish haematology as a distinct discipline of medicine. Callender's contributions to haematology included research on iron absorption and the effects and management of
iron overload Iron overload is the abnormal and increased accumulation of total iron in the body, leading to organ damage. The primary mechanism of organ damage is oxidative stress, as elevated intracellular iron levels increase free radical formation via the ...
. She studied some of the most common causes of anaemia:
iron deficiency Iron deficiency, or sideropenia, is the state in which a body lacks enough iron to supply its needs. Iron is present in all cells in the human body and has several vital functions, such as carrying oxygen to the tissues from the lungs as a key ...
,
vitamin B12 deficiency Vitamin B12 deficiency, also known as cobalamin deficiency, is the medical condition in which the blood and tissue have a lower than normal level of Vitamin B12, vitamin B12. Symptoms can vary from none to severe. Mild deficiency may have fe ...
, and
folate deficiency Folate deficiency, also known as vitamin B9 deficiency, is a low level of folate and derivatives in the body. This may result in megaloblastic anemia in which red blood cells become abnormally large, and folate deficiency anemia is the term given ...
. She also worked with Rob Race to develop a new method for determining the lifespan of
red blood cells Red blood cells (RBCs), referred to as erythrocytes (, with -''cyte'' translated as 'cell' in modern usage) in academia and medical publishing, also known as red cells, erythroid cells, and rarely haematids, are the most common type of blood cel ...
, and helped
Leslie Witts Leslie John Witts (1898–1982) was a British physician and pioneering haematologist. Biography L. J. Witts received secondary education at Boteler Grammar School, where he won in 1916 a scholarship to the University of Manchester. During WWI ...
on early studies of
chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...
regimens for treating
leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...
. She and her colleagues at Oxford designed one of the first whole-body counters to measure radioactivity within the body.


Personal life

Callender married Ivan Gyula Árpád Monostori, a Hungarian refugee studying medicine at Oxford, in 1957; they lived together in Oxford and Scotland with "a collection of rather terrifying mastiffs". Callender died from leukaemia on 17 August 2004 at
John Radcliffe Hospital John Radcliffe Hospital (informally known as the JR or the John Radcliffe) is a large tertiary teaching hospital in Oxford, England. It forms part of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is named after John Radcliffe (physician) ...
in Oxford.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Callender, Sheila 1914 births 2004 deaths 20th-century British medical doctors Alumni of the University of St Andrews British medical researchers Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians British haematologists Medical scholars of the University of Oxford People from Sidcup People educated at Godolphin School English women medical doctors Rockefeller Fellows 20th-century British women medical doctors