Meet the Ellison-Cliffe Travelling Fellows: Mr Daniel Van Gijn
At the end of 2021 a number of RSM members in the early stages of their careers competed for the prestigious Ellison-Cliffe Travelling Fellowship. Here we meet the successful candidates and find out more about their plans for undertaking specialist training during their time overseas.
Mr Daniel Van Gijn is currently an ST7 specialist registrar in oral and maxillofacial surgery at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, and author of the Oxford Handbook of Head and Neck Anatomy.
With the support of an Ellison-Cliffe Travelling Fellowship he will be spending a year in Australia where he will be taking up a fellowship in head and neck surgery and post-ablative microvascular reconstruction at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse in Camperdown, Sydney. A world class integrated cancer hospital, the centre has a particular focus on head and neck and cutaneous cancer.
While there, Daniel will increase his knowledge and understanding of the management of head and neck conditions, predominantly focusing on oncology, and gain training and skills in head and neck surgical resection as well as reconstructive techniques including microvascular reconstruction.
He says: “The Ellison Cliffe Travelling Fellowship will offer the financial support necessary to account for international travel and the basic costs of living while I am in Sydney with my young family. The surgical opportunities that my time at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse presents will equip me with the skillset required to pursue a rewarding career as a consultant head and neck surgeon.”