Sunderland neurosurgery expert retires after 45 years serving the entire world

Dr Barbara Gregson today, September 15, officially called it a day after an illustrious career in which she opened hospitals, judged the work of neurosurgeons and studied the best treatment for bleeding in the brain.

As she reflected on her working life, she said: “Although I am officially retiring now there are still a couple of significant articles awaiting publication in international journals and I am hopeful that these too will move things on in the treatment of brain injury.”

As well as Dr Gregson's specialist career, she also cut the ribbon to open a new hospital in Taiwan, judged a competition on research by young neurosurgeons in Romania and was the only ‘western’ speaker at a national conference in the southern part of the Czech Republic.

She worked at Newcastle University for all but two of those 44 plus years. Since the 1990s she has been involved in neurosurgical research.

She has lived in Sunderland for almost fifty years and is the wife of Sunderland writer, musician and historian Keith Gregson and the mother of Tom, John and Paul Gregson.

Dr Gregson added: “In the early years I was involved in interesting projects covering infant feeding, the development of nursing homes and the degree of collaboration between nurses, health visitors and GPs but for more than twenty years my research area has been in neurosurgery”

“The STICH /STITCH studies which I helped set up involved hospitals and universities across the world and looked at the key issue of whether to operate or not if people had bleeds inside the brain.

“These led onto me advising colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA when they started undertaking further studies looking at other ways of treating people with a bleed in the brain. I would like to think that this research has added something to our knowledge in this area. ”

Now her thoughts are closer to home and she added: “I am hoping to spend more time with the family and friends and in pursuing hobbies such as

walking, country dancing, family history research, knitting and watching rugby with my husband.”

Support your Echo and become a subscriber today. Enjoy unlimited access to all of our news and sport, see fewer ads, experience faster load times, test your brain with daily puzzles and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. The Sunderland Echo has been on Wearside since 1873, and your support means we can continue telling your stories for generations to come. Click here to subscribe.