Vicky Veronica Clement-Jones (née Yip; 23 December 1948 – 30 July 1987) was a

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

-born English

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and

medical research Medical research (or biomedical research), also known as health research, refers to the process of using scientific methods with the aim to produce knowledge about human diseases, the prevention and treatment of illness, and the promotion of ...

er. Her own diagnosis with

ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different ...

led her to found the British Association for Cancer United Patients (BACUP) in 1984.

Biography

Vicky Veronica Yip was born in 1948 in

to Teddy Yip, a Chinese businessman, and Susie Ho. In 1957, Yip and her four siblings moved with their mother to

East Grinstead East Grinstead () is a town in West Sussex, England, near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders, south of London, northeast of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Situated in the northeast corner of the county, bord ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

. She was educated at the Notre Dame Convent School in

Lingfield, Surrey Lingfield is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge district of Surrey, England, approximately south of London. Several buildings date from the Tudor period and the timber-frame medieval church is Grade I listed. The stone cage or old ga ...

, and East Grinstead County Grammar School. She graduated from

Girton College, Cambridge Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the un ...

in 1971 with a first in medical science, archaeology and anthropology, and went on to study medicine at

St Thomas's Hospital Medical School St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London was one of the oldest and most prestigious medical schools in the UK. The school was absorbed to form part of GKT School of Medical Education. History It was part of one of the oldest hospitals in ...

. She married

Timothy Clement-Jones Timothy Francis Clement-Jones, Baron Clement-Jones, (born 26October 1949) is a Liberal Democrat peer and spokesman for the digital economy in the House of Lords. Career Clement-Jones is a consultant of the multinational law firm DLA Pip ...

in 1973 and graduated from St Thomas's with an

MB BCh A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (; MBBS, also abbreviated as BM BS, MB ChB, MB BCh, or MB BChir) is a medical degree granted by medical schools or universities in countries that adhere to the United Kingdom's higher education tradi ...

in 1974. After qualifying, she held house posts at St Thomas's and was eventually promoted to senior house physician in

neurology Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine) , medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous syst ...

and thoracic medicine. She was appointed a medical registrar at

St Bartholomew's Hospital St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 by Rahere, and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust. History Early history Barts was founded in 1123 by ...

in 1976 and was awarded a bursary to research the

opioid peptide Opioid peptides or opiate peptides are peptides that bind to opioid receptors in the brain; opiates and opioids mimic the effect of these peptides. Such peptides may be produced by the body itself, for example endorphins. The effects of these p ...

s involved in responses to pain. After designing a

radioimmunoassay A radioimmunoassay (RIA) is an immunoassay that uses radioactive tracer, radiolabeled molecules in a stepwise formation of immune complexes. A RIA is a very sensitive in vitro assay technique used to measure concentrations of substances, usually m ...

for one of these peptides, her findings were published in ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

''. Clement-Jones was diagnosed with

in 1982, at which point she said she "crossed the divide from doctor to patient". This led her to establish the British Association for Cancer United Patients (BACUP), an organisation to provide information, advice and emotional support to cancer patients. BACUP was registered as a charity in 1984 and later became the largest organisation of its kind in the United Kingdom. The name BACUP was changed to CancerBACUP in 1998 and to Cancerbackup in 2006, in an effort to more clearly define what the charity did. On 26 June 1987 she made an extended appearance on the British television discussion programme '' After Dark'', discussing ''"Killing With Care?"''. The following month, on 30 July, Clement-Jones died, aged 38, exactly five years from the day she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clement-Jones, Vicky 1948 births 1987 deaths 20th-century English medical doctors English medical researchers English health activists Hong Kong emigrants to England Deaths from ovarian cancer in England Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge British neurologists Women neurologists Women medical researchers English women medical doctors Founders of charities Place of death missing Spouses of life peers 20th-century English women medical doctors 20th-century English women