The unwavering support of her husband and three adult children provided Deborah Douglas with crucial strength during her darkest days. Combined with the pursuit of justice, this family foundation helped sustain her through a traumatic medical ordeal that has reshaped her life. Now 67, Deborah continues to use positive thinking to manage the emotional distress stemming from her experience as a breast cancer survivor who underwent what she later discovered was an unnecessary 'cleavage-sparing mastectomy' performed by the now-disgraced surgeon Ian Paterson.
A Devastating Revelation
Reflecting on the moment Paterson was imprisoned for 15 years in 2017 - later increased to 20 years on appeal - for 20 counts of wounding with intent, Deborah recalls the complex emotions. "It was devastating," she says. The charges related to unauthorised mastectomies performed on nine female patients and one male patient between 1997 and 2011, individuals who were falsely told they had cancer. While Deborah did genuinely have cancer, she was not among this particular group of victims.
However, she later discovered through medical reports that a straightforward lumpectomy would have successfully eliminated her tumour. This revelation meant the mastectomy and gruelling chemotherapy she endured were entirely unnecessary. "I felt violated," Deborah explains. "To have that kind of trust broken was really unnerving. When Paterson was jailed it was like a weight had been lifted. Finally I could breathe out. I wake up in the morning now and feel like some justice has been done."
The Beginning of the Ordeal
Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003 by Paterson, Deborah underwent a mastectomy, reconstructive surgery and chemotherapy before subsequently discovering her condition had been significantly overstated and her treatment had been unnecessarily aggressive. She was one of at least 1,000 victims of the surgeon during a 14-year period. Some patients received botched procedures that failed to remove all cancerous breast tissue, allowing the disease to return or spread - resulting in several tragic deaths.
Working as a quality engineer in the aerospace sector when she first encountered Paterson in 2003, Deborah reflects on his motivations. "He wrongly told many women that they had cancer, in order to operate on them - and make money to fund his lavish lifestyle, living in a large Georgian mansion in Edgbaston, Birmingham."
Family Support and Personal History
Deborah, who resides in Birmingham with her husband Bob, 70, a driver, has three children - Robert, 41, Jennifer, 40 and William, 37 - and two grandchildren, Sophia, nine, and Bella, six. She remarks: "Cancer has unfortunately been in my life for a long time." Having lost her mother to oesophageal cancer and her father to lung cancer, she discovered a lump in her left breast in November 2003.
With private healthcare through her employment, she was given an appointment with Paterson at the Spire Parkway Hospital in Birmingham. He was also employed at Spire Little Aston Hospital in Birmingham from 1997 to 2011, and at NHS hospitals operated by the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust.
The Consultation That Changed Everything
Deborah continues: "I'd barely sat down before Paterson told me that I needed a mastectomy and reconstruction to my left breast. 'You'll go in with two boobs and come out with two boobs and a nice flat stomach', he said. I was shocked. I thought I only needed a lump removed. I had big breasts, I was a G cup, and asked why I needed a mastectomy. He made it sound that it would be dangerous if I didn't have the whole thing taken off. He told me that if he did what he said, it would be curable."
Trusting him as the medical expert, she proceeded with the procedure. She recalls: "I woke up in agony, he'd removed all my lymph nodes too. I was so unprepared for the state I would wake up in, although I didn't assume at this point that anything was wrong." Six weeks afterwards, she commenced seven months of punishing chemotherapy, losing her hair and describing her skin, especially her scar tissue, as "on fire."
Discovering the Truth
Paterson remained her consultant until his 2011 suspension, but she was recalled for a scan in 2012. Meanwhile, complaints against Paterson were accumulating as evidence of his unnecessary procedures - including "cleavage-sparing mastectomies" like Deborah's - along with women who had been left with some cancerous tissue following botched operations, came to light.
She explains: "At my scan, the doctor made an offhand comment, saying that for a lady with my size breasts there didn't appear to have been much breast tissue taken. The definition of a mastectomy is a flat chest wall. But because I had immediate reconstruction surgery after my mastectomy, there was no way I could check that. What's more, my scar is elliptical around the breast, while normally during a mastectomy they go in through the nipple. When I asked why my scar was so big, Paterson replied that the lump was bigger than they thought. I consented to a mastectomy, like many others, but what we were getting was a partial mastectomy."
A Pattern of Behaviour
"He was very misogynistic," Deborah adds. "He had this view that women would be happy with a cleavage. How wrong he was - these women just wanted to survive." Reflecting on an independent medical report she obtained in 2013, Deborah revealed: "My mastectomy and chemotherapy at the hands of Ian Paterson had not been necessary. The report stated that the recommended treatment for cancer of my type was a wide local excision, an operation to remove the lump rather than the breast. If I'd been offered that I'd have taken it in a heartbeat. Paterson put me through hell - unnecessary operations and months of gruelling chemo that left my body broken and feeling horrific. And for what? To line his pocket with money from private procedures."
The Fight for Justice
Collaborating with police, Deborah - who had kept detailed records in her diary throughout her entire ordeal - revealed everything to investigators. Now serving as chairwoman of the charity Breast Friends, her crusade for justice earned her the moniker the 'Erin Brockovich of Birmingham' after the determined legal clerk and campaigner. In 2022, she received a special recognition award from Pride of Britain. She remarks: "I was so incredibly proud."
Deborah, who observed Paterson in the dock and remembers him "shaking his head in disbelief as if he was the victim," credits her husband's backing for helping her persevere. She said: "Bob has been with me every step of the way, as have my children. Bob held my hand and comforted me when I was in pain, and he encouraged me to fight when I found out what Paterson had done. Now, he encourages me to put my laptop away and enjoy life, which is just as important. His support is unwavering. He's my rock."
Continuing Consequences
Paterson was deprived of his £1 million NHS pension in 2024 by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, the same year inquests were also launched into 65 unnatural deaths of Paterson's patients - with more potentially to follow. Deborah said: "He was so arrogant, he never thought he would be brought to task. He had a licence to print money."
Reflecting on her experiences in her first book, The Cost Of Trust, which is published this week, Deborah states: "I never wanted this. But I was the wrong person, or the right person, for Paterson to come up against. I was able to continue that fight. My character is such that I am very driven if I think there has been an injustice. You're not going to get away with it. And we can't have this happen again."
Concerns About Patient Safety
However, Deborah worries that insufficient measures have been implemented to safeguard the public from dangerous surgeons like Paterson. She explained: "The public wants to know they have a safe surgeon. And internally, if your surgeon has twice as many surgeries on their books is it because they're good or are they cutting corners?"
Meanwhile, Paterson is due to be freed from prison on parole in May 2027, which will be ahead of the inquests into some of his patients' deaths being completed. Deborah added: "The families are going to watch him walk free while they're still talking about their loved ones' deaths. It's totally wrong. It's not fair."
Looking Forward with Hope
Yet Deborah, who is in remission, stays optimistic that meaningful change will emerge. She said: "It's about moving forwards, and putting robust things in place to stop this happening again. And, for me, life is good now." Her journey from victim to campaigner represents both a personal triumph and a continuing call for systemic reform in healthcare oversight and patient protection mechanisms.
