How heartbreak drove lawyer to fight for cancer surgeon's victims

Kashmir Uppal, who pushed the police to press criminal charges against Paterson, revealed her own sister died of breast cancer in July 2012 at the of just 38. Sadly, by the time the disease was discovered, it was already terminal.

"It was very aggressive, there was nothing that could be done," she says. "An aunt also died of breast cancer. It was before the issues with Paterson came out but when I started working on those cases, it was almost as if it was my destiny.

"I couldn't do anything for my sister but I could help these women. This is what gave me the passion and the drive to carry on."

The 49-year-old solicitor has been working with Paterson's former patients since 2010 when she was instructed by a woman who had suffered a recurrence of breast cancer following a mastectomy performed by him.

Initial investigations proved unhelpful as they were based on the belief that all the breast tissue had been removed during the surgery, whereas in some cases as much as 80 per cent of the breast issue was still in place.

It was around this time that stories began to emerge in the press of 'cleavage-sparing' mastectomies being performed by Paterson and more women began sharing their own horror stories.

In 2012, one of her clients asked her to go public with her story, a press conference was arranged, and the floodgates were opened.

Mrs Uppal said: "He must have known, as a surgeon, that he had to remove all the breast tissue. But he was quite plausible. Listening to him in court, even I was beginning to doubt myself after pursuing this man relentlessly for years."

She said: "I was shocked and quite overwhelmed by the number of women affected by him. It's snowballed since then.

"Initially it was the cleavage-sparing mastectomies that were carried out at the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust but then, in 2011, it was clear there were issues about surgery he'd carried out in the private sector for Spire, predominantly on women who didn't require surgery at all.

"He was first investigated for unregulated procedures in 2003 after complaints by colleagues but he was still operating in the NHS until 2011. Spire didn't take any action until the the GMB (General Medical Council) spoke to them.

"Even then, it was a case of 'He's got a clinic in the morning - it will be too inconvenient to cancel'. I know if I was a patient I'd rather suffer the inconvenience of turning up to a cancelled appointment than be seen by a criminal."

She found it shocking that that NHS bosses did not act on recommendations made in reports following investigations into Paterson and that he was allowed to go back to earlier practices.

And she is incredulous that Spire took on the rogue surgeon in 2007 after he had been suspended by by Good Hope Hospital and after the NHS had warned the private organisation of its own investigation, and believes more heads will roll before the sorry episode is over.

She only realised the extent of the damage Paterson had wreaked following the press conference that was held in the wake of her client going public. Very soon she was working 12 - 14 hours a day.

"Within two weeks we had 400 new cases. I just didn't want to turn anyone away. When you put out a call for women to come forward, you can't then tell them you only work nine till five."

She pushed police when by January 2016 Paterson still had not been charged. His conviction at Nottingham Crown Court last week of maliciously wounding patients has brought a great deal of satisfaction.

"He was a bully who exploited the vulnerable position women found themselves in to the highest degree," she says. "Thank god he's now paying the price."

The case exposed a devastating failure by health bosses to exercise any control over Paterson and she feels a sea change in the way hospitals and health trusts operate must now take place.

"What's come out of this case is the total lack of monitoring or surveillance at both the NHS and Spire. The management let down the patients because there were concerns about this surgeon from very early on yet steps weren't taken to prevent him from carrying out these surgical procedures.

"Some of these managers have been in their posts for donkeys' years. It was almost like they were untouchable, you couldn't challenge them. That has to change."

The self-deprecating solicitor, who lives in Birmingham with her husband, the former Wolverhampton South West MP Paul Uppal and their family, revealed she turned to the law after failing to get good enough grades for medical school. "I'm really an aspiring doctor," she laughs.

But there will be no rest yet in the Uppal household after her husband was selected as the Tory candidate in the forthcoming general election for the seat he lost to Labour two years ago.

She said: "It's going to be turmoil for the next few weeks."