Dr Alison Berner

Academic Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology, Specialty Doctor in Adult Gender Identity

Alison (she/her/ella) is an National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Clinical Lecturer at Queen Mary University London (QMUL) and an Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Chelsea & Westminster Hospitals.

She is the UK’s only oncologist to be dual trained in gender identity medicine and leads the UK Cancer and Transition Service (UCATS) – a world first national clinic to integrate local oncology and gender affirming care for transgender and gender diverse people in the UK.

Her research centres on reducing cancer care inequalities according to sex, gender and sexual orientation. She is President of the British Association Gender Identity Specialists and a Trustee of the OUTpatients, the UK’s LGBTIQ+ Cancer Charity.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your career journey so far.

I am a cisgender bisexual woman and a strong ally for the transgender community. As a resident doctor I was inspired to improve the care of transgender people through cases I observed on the ward. I dual trained in gender affirming care with a vision to improve the care of transgender people in medical oncology, my primary specialty.

Through that journey I have taken on wider work in LGBTQ+ advocacy and leadership. For the last two years I have been President of the British Association of Gender Identity Specialists, an organisation representing clinicians and academics in gender affirming care in the UK.

Recently I have become part of the LGBTIQ+ network at Barts Health and taken the lead on developing a trans inclusive staff policy. I currently lead the UK Cancer and Transition Service for trans people with cancer, which has secured three years of Macmillan funding. This will form a platform for recruitment to prospective clinical studies through a recently awarded National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Advanced Fellowship.

What is one lesson or piece of advice you’d like to give aspiring LGBTQ+ leaders?

National and international attitudes to LGBTIQ+ inclusion fluctuate so you have to ride the creative curve and make the most of enthusiasm for the topic when it is there, in order to be resilient and weather the storm when it is deprioritised or halted.

What are you most looking forward to about joining the Health and Care LGBTQ+ Leaders Network?

I am looking forward to sharing experiences and challenges with other leaders, and finding collaborative solutions to problems that affect us in our various organisations that we can all adapt and implement locally.