Ms Zoe Barber

Professional statement

Ms Zoe Barber is a highly regarded and experienced consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon with a specialist interest in breast cancer, breast lumps, breast reconstruction surgery, breast augmentation, breast reduction, and gynaecomastia. She practises at the Nuffield Health Cardiff Bay Hospital. 

Ms Barber was awarded the Phebe Todd scholarship to study medicine at the University of Oxford, graduating in 2009 with the Tutor’s Prize in surgery. She undertook her surgical training with a specialist interest in oncoplastic breast surgery in Oxford, the South West of England and Wales, before taking up her consultant post in Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board.

She was appointed clinical specialty services director in 2020, responsible for breast services across the Health Board. In 2019, she was awarded the ASGBI (Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland) Gold Medal for the best performance in the FRCS (Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons) examination.

In 2015, she took up a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship to work with the Los Angeles-based charity, Project AngelFood. Ms Barber is an associate fellow of the Higher Education Authority and regularly teaches as an Associate Clinical Tutor for Cardiff University and as an advanced trauma life support Instructor for the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

She was previously a tutor in both pre-clinical medicine and tutor in surgery at the University of Oxford. Ms Barber holds an MA in medical sciences from the University of Oxford, has published in numerous medical journals and has presented nationally and internationally. She has also published a book.

She was awarded the Medical Women’s Federation Research Prize, the Ethicon Prize, and was a finalist for the Royal Society of Medicine’s Adrian Tanner Prize. After suffering an eclamptic seizure following the birth of her twins and having her driving licence revoked for six months as a result, she undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of seizure recurrence following eclampsia.

She presented this research to the DVLA, who have changed their national guidance as a result, meaning no other eclamptic woman will have her driving licence revoked in the future. Ms Barber worked with ITV as a medical advisor on Maternal.

Outside of work, she is a keen runner. She represented the University of Oxford at athletics, cross country and cycling. Whilst at medical school, she won the National Duathlon Championships and was selected to represent Great Britain in the World Duathlon Championships. These days, however, most of her running is with her twins in a double running buggy! She lives in the Vale of Glamorgan with her husband, also a surgeon, and her twin daughters.