Nurse celebrates role in trial that enhanced breast cancer surgery outcomes

A nurse who works with breast cancer patients has spoken of her pride after joining a trial that improved breast cancer surgery after her own diagnosis.

Heidi Jones, a 53-year-old staff nurse on the surgical day unit at Basildon Hospital, is a mother of two from Corringham in Essex and works with breast cancer patients daily.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2025, the day after her birthday. She told ITV News Anglia that she had jumped at the opportunity to take part in the trial.

“I said yes because we need to get out there about the advancements in treatment and in surgery and medicines,” she said.

“Cancer is a big thing, so whatever you can do to improve the treatment of the cancer, I was all for it.”

Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust was one of two UK centres taking part in the trial, alongside 21 others across the US, Canada and Austria.

The trial involved using a breast cancer locator, or BCL, a customised 3D mould matched to the unique dimensions of the patient’s tumour and breast.

The BCL is then placed over the patient during surgery, giving teams more detailed guidance on the tumour’s shape, size and location.

Results found a 34 per cent reduction in the number of second surgeries needed, and a 32 per cent reduction in cases where cancer remained after surgery.

Surgeon Wayne Chicken said the new technique could have a big impact on some patients.

“I’ve been working in breast surgery for 25 years, and breast surgery has changed radically in those 25 years,” he said.

“Now we’re trying to do less and less, the minimum necessary to control the disease, rather than big procedures and potentially over-treat cancers. This is doing the minimum necessary to treat the cancer.”

This actually uses the information from the MRI scans to plan, so the impact is less surgery and more likely to get it right in a single operation.

Using the BCL system, Jones’s breast cancer surgery was a success, with the tumour removed completely.

“I do talk about things quite openly, and I use it now when the ladies are coming in. I’ll tell them I’ve gone through it,” she said.

“It just gives them that little bit more to let them know someone else has come through [treatment] and has come through the other side.

“I feel proud that I actually took part in it. I feel privileged to have taken part in it and been asked to do it.

“I’m extremely glad it’s been really successful as well. I was lucky, I class myself lucky.”