Miss Margaret Dorothy Snelling was a pioneer of modern radiotherapy and was the first female President of the British Institute of Radiology from 1965 to 1966. She was also the first female President of the European Association of Radiology from 1977 to 1979.
Margaret Snelling was born on 20 September 1914 at the start of the Great War. She qualified as a doctor in 1938 at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London. The Royal Free Hospital had accepted women to train as doctors when most medical schools accepted only men. Margaret took her house jobs at the Royal Free Hospital in London, following which she worked in Chelmsford. Margaret was appointed as Assistant Radiotherapist at the Middlesex Hospital in 1940 and obtained both her MRCP and DMR.
During the Second World War, Margaret trained as a surgeon obtaining her FRCS. She worked as a general and orthopaedic surgeon a Haymeads Emergency Hospital in Bishop’s Stortford from 1944 to 1946. In 1947 she returned to the Meyerstein Institute of Radiotherapy at the Middlesex Hospital in London and became an assistant radiotherapist and then deputy director under Sir Brian Windeyer. She was appointed consultant radiotherapist to the Middlesex Hospital in 1949 and also the Marie Curie Hospital and Bedford General Hospital. In May 1951 she passed the radiotherapy examination for the Fellowship of the Faculty of Radiologists (FFR). She was Director of the Meyerstein Institute of Radiotherapy from 1969 to 1979.
She had a particular interest in gynaecological malignancies and pioneered the treatment of carcinoma of the body uterus, reviewing her experience in 1964. In February 1972 she was joint-Chair with Dr Norman Simon at the headquarters of the World Health Organisation in Geneva, of a working party on radionuclides and after-loading techniques in the treatment of cancer of the uterus. The group was interested in use of alternatives to radium and new after loading techniques. There were 17 participants from ten countries, and although they had no official status in any national or international professional association the group was very influential; they were joined by members of both the World Health Organisation and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Margaret Snelling had a concern for promoting radiotherapy internationally, particularly in developing countries. At Porto Carras in 1980 the decision was made to create an autonomous Radiotherapy Section within the European Association of Radiology (EAR). This decision was ratified by the General Assembly held in Brussels in 1981, and the first Board of this new Section met in Brussels. The President was F. Eschwege and the Vice-Presidents were Margaret Snelling and William “Bill” Ross (both BIR Presidents).
The EAR Section of Radiotherapy was finally laid down in 1995, following the decision by radiation oncologists in many countries to separate from diagnostic radiology in their national societies. The new society was the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO). The EAR now continues as the European Society of Radiology (ESR).
Margaret cared for patients who had advanced disease and, in cooperation with George Peatfield, a consultant surgeon and colleague at Bedford General Hospital, and with help from the Sue Ryder Foundation, the St John’s Home, Moggerhanger, was founded for the care of patients with terminal cancer.
Margaret travelled widely in her retirement, cementing old friendships. She died on 24 April 1997.
