Gillian completed her general nurse training at Guy’s hospital and worked for 8 years in medical oncology/haematology. She moved into Cancer Genetics in 1999 and worked as a senior genetic nurse specialist in Oxford. In 2001 she moved to Southampton to a joint NHS/University post as a principal genetic counsellor/research nurse working as part of the CRUK cancer centre. The role involved being the local co-ordinator for a range of national and international research studies into inherited cancers including chemoprevention, screening, epidemiology and DNA based projects. Southampton was consistently one of the top three recruiting centres in the country for these studies. At the same time she began to develop her own research interests. Initially she designed a project looking at the experience of living with von Hippel Lindau disease which resulted in a novel patient held record scheme. She collaborated in qualitative research led by PIs at Southampton and Edinburgh exploring the nature of the boundary between research and clinical practice in the field of cancer genetics. She very much enjoyed the active combination of clinical practice and research during this period. In 2011 Gillian was awarded a NIHR clinical academic fellowship to develop her own research, with the aim of developing a clinical academic career and leading research development in the genetic counselling profession. Her PhD explored the consent and disclosure practices surrounding clinically relevant incidental findings from genetic tests from both health professional and patient perspectives. Her research has provided an insight into the gap between the enormous technological advances and their translation into clinical practice. Gillian now works as a consultant genetic counsellor at the Wessex Regional Genetics Service leading the mainstreaming cancer genetic testing programme. This post has been jointly funded by UHS and the Wessex Cancer Alliance. This role involves the education, training and support of mainstream clinicians taking on genetic testing of cancer patients to direct treatment options. In addition, Gillian continues to work with the University of Southampton in delivering a Masters module on the MSc Genomic Medicine course and as co-applicant on a research project evaluating a breast genetic testing online decision aid.