After radiotherapy registrar posts at the Royal Free and Royal Marsden Hospitals she was appointed consultant radiotherapist at St Luke’s Hospital Guildford in 1955, and became head of the department in 1959. She oversaw the installation of a Brown-Boveri 35 MeV betatron at St Luke's, the first high energy electron beam machine in the UK. She helped to develop treatment techniques for a variety of tumour sites using the betatron. In 1969 Helen married Andreas Soteriou, a Cypriot business man, and emigrated to Cyprus. In 1973 she co-founded the radiotherapy and oncology department at Nicosia General Hospital, where she was instrumental in introducing modern radiotherapy techniques to Cyprus. Later she set up the first private radiotherapy facility at the Evangelista Clinic, where she worked until her retirement in 1995. Her contributions to the care and treatment of cancer patients in Cyprus, and the forging of links between oncologists in Cyprus and the UK, were recognised by the award of an OBE in the 1998 honours list.
Memoir author: Michael HenkDr Helen Margaret Soteriou OBE
Dr Helen Margaret Soteriou OBE
Helen Soteriou, formerly clinical oncologist at St Luke’s Hospital Guildford and Nicosia General Hospital, Cyprus, died on 19 November 2012.
In an obituary in the Cyprus Mail she was described as an 'English lady with a Greek soul' because in addition to her pioneer work in revolutionising cancer treatment in Cyprus she took part in active protests against the Turkish occupation of the northern half of the island. Helen Margaret Mellor was born in Liverpool in 1920, the daughter of a Unitarian minister, who died when she was four years old. She was educated at Rotherham Girls' Grammar School and the Royal Free Medical School, graduating in 1943. She trained initially in surgery and obtained her FRCS. She was one of a number of junior surgeons in the 1950s who retrained in what was then the relatively young specialty of radiotherapy.
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