Vicky Forster

Victoria Jane (Vicky) Forster is an English cancer researcher and science communicator. As of 2022 she is Patient and Community Engagement Lead at Women's College Hospital in Toronto.^[1][2]

Vicky Forster
Alma mater	Newcastle University Durham University
Known for	Paediatric cancer
Scientific career
Institutions	Women's College Hospital, Toronto
Thesis	AML1/ETO promotes a mutator phenotype in t(8;21) acute myeloid leukaemia (2012)

Education

Forster grew up in Chelmsford, Essex. She was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia aged 7.^[3] She became interested in scientific research whilst at hospital, and went on to study biomedical science at the Durham University.^[3][4] She graduated from Durham University in 2008.^[5] Forster completed a PhD at Newcastle University with James Allan and Olaf Heidenreich.^[3][6] On the day she finished her PhD, she tweeted, Dear Cancer, I beat you aged eight and now I’ve got a PhD in cancer research, which became a viral post.^[7][8]

Career

Forster used the media attention to praise where she worked, the Northern Institute for Cancer Research, Newcastle upon Tyne.^[7] Here she concentrated on leukemia caused by mutations in DNA.^[7]

In 2014 Forster was a British Science Association Media Fellow.^[9][10] That year, she spoke at TEDx Jesmond Dene about the legacy of Janet Rowley.^[11] In 2015 she won the Communications and Brand Ambassador Prize from Cancer Research UK.^[12] She appeared in the science communication project Soapbox Science.^[13] Forster was a 2017 TED Global Fellow researching paediatric cancer.^[14][15] Her TED talk, What can cancer survivors teach us about cancer treatment, was in Arusha, Tanzania.^[16] She was listed in the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30^[17] and was part of the BBC's 100 Women science week.^[18] She has written for The Times, The Conversation, Forbes Health and The Guardian.^{[19][20][21][22]} She is a member of the Society of The International Society of Paediatric Oncology.^[23]

She completed her post-doc at The Hospital for Sick Children. Her research focussed on the rare genetic disorder biallelic mismatch repair deficiency.^[24] She now works at Women's College Hospital, Toronto.^[25]