Saving Lives in Leeds: Surgeon starring in new BBC Two documentary speaks out on why 'women can have it all'

Saving Lives in Leeds is following world-leading doctors in an exclusive look behind the scenes as they work through difficult situations. The documentary was filmed across the city’s hospitals and the second episode airs on BBC Two tonight.

This week’s episode will feature endocrine surgeon Emma Collins, who has been working at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for five years, as she and a fellow surgeon explore options to remove a benign tumour from an 85-year-old patient that is causing breathing difficulties.

Being filmed felt “surreal” at first, Emma said. She added: “I've never done anything like that before. After a while you get used to, and when you do, it almost becomes like a fly in the wall, and you forget that they’re there and you just act how you normally would act with your patients.

"I'm not usually on the national stage, so there's a great degree trepidation of how it will be perceived by colleagues and peers around the country. But I'm hoping that it will be well received and represents the work we do here in Leeds, and how we try and do the best for as many people as we can.”

The surgeon said she hopes the episode will help people understand the difficult decisions medical professionals have to make every day. She said: “We're constantly under pressure to deliver. As surgeons, you want to do the best you can, and we have so many patients and prioritising patients needs over other patients is really challenging.”

Emma wants to break down misconceptions about women in surgery and the barriers they might face. She said: “I think there's still this perception you can't be a woman and be a surgeon, because you can't have it all. I would say ‘Yes, you can have it all’.

"You have to be organized – but any job requires that. And if you have the strive, the determination, surgery is open to all women and men alike, and I think your gender shouldn't hold you back.

“I use a phrase quite a lot, which is ‘If you see it, you can be it’ and what I try and do is represent female surgeons locally and nationally to medical students. Surgery as a specialty, as a woman, as a mother is all completely doable.”

Emma thinks there are advantages to being a women in the field, such as being able to empathise with patients. She added: “As a patient, you want a doctor who, yes, can do the job, and technically has the ability, but also has the empathy that can understand the feelings and emotions that you go through when you come for an operation.”

The surgeon knew she wanted to medicine in her teenage years and her love for the field has not changed. “That ability to literally save somebody's life is it's fabulous, and it's something you can't get any other way. That's why I love to do the job because you make a difference to somebody's life.”

Saving Lives in Leeds will air on BBC Two tonight at 9pm. Episodes will appear on BBC iPlayer shortly after broadcast.