Katherine Mary Fussell, known as Kate, was a consultant general and breast surgeon in Wigan. She was born on 13 April 1929 in Bristol, the daughter of James Henry Fussell, chief education officer for Newport, and Clara May Fussell née Kilminster, a schoolteacher. She attended Redland High School in Bristol, Haberdashers’ Aske’s Girls School in Acton, Weston-super-Mare County School, Ealing County School, Headington School in Oxford (on a scholarship) and finally Dudley High School, from which she obtained sixth form prizes and a state scholarship to medical school. She studied medicine at the University of Birmingham from 1946, qualifying in 1951 with an obstetrics and gynaecology prize. She was a house surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and then a house physician at Torbay Hospital and in Birmingham. From 1953 to 1954 she was an assistant lecturer in anatomy at the University of Birmingham. She was then a casualty registrar at West Bromwich District Hospital. In 1955 she was a surgical registrar at St Woolos Hospital, Newport and then, from 1955 to 1957, at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in London. She became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1957. In 1958 she went to the New York, where she was a resident in surgery at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, then at the Memorial Hospital and the Lenox Hill Hospital. She was subsequently a resident in orthopaedics at the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York. In 1963 she returned to the UK, becoming a consultant surgeon at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital. She held that post until 1970, when she was appointed as a consultant surgeon at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary, Wigan. Whilst working in Wigan she chaired the medical executive and area medical executive committees and became chief executive of the local hospital trust. She retired in 1990. She was an active member of the Medical Women’s Federation, serving as honorary secretary of the London association from 1967 to 1970 and as president of the Merseyside association from 1982 to 1984. In Wigan she led the local Soroptimists campaign to obtain the area’s first mammography unit. At a national level, she was president of Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland from 1986 to 1987. As president she focused on female genital mutilation, bringing this practice to the attention of Soroptimists and a greater awareness worldwide. She was also chair of the National Alliance of Women’s Organisations from 1990. She received many awards, including the Woman in the Community award (in 1994), the Lady of Substance award from *The Lady* magazine (in 2015) and life membership of Liverpool Medical Institute (in 2016). In 2000 she became an honorary freeman of the Borough of Wigan and Leigh. In her spare time, she enjoyed golf, music (including opera), travel, photography, needlework and gardening. In her retirement she studied with the Open University and gained a BA in 2000. Kate Fussell died on 23 November 2020 aged 91. She was unmarried.