UNDER HER SKIN

Sue Williams' thoughtful, respectful and carefully crafted account of Fiona Wood's remarkable life. The daughter of a fifth-generation coal-mining family in the north of England, Professor Fiona Wood has become one of Australia's most innovative and respected surgeons and world leading burns specialist, despite the opposition she faced.

In 1991, Fiona became a burns surgeon and researcher and two years later, together with scientist Marie Stone, she developed a skin culture facility, recognising the potential of tissue-engineering technology to treat burns. She then pioneered the evolution of the product into a global first: aerosol-delivered cell clusters, better known as 'spray-on skin'. Her technology has been used on thousands of patients around the world to reduce permanent scarring for burns victims, and ReCell now has FDA approval in the United States. Regularly, Fiona is at the forefront of crisis response to terrible events that may involve people suffering horrific burns injuries. In 2002, she made world headlines when she led her team saving 28 survivors from the deadly Bali bombings with up to 92% body burns. She was in charge of 19 surgeons and 130 medical staff operating around the clock to save lives - and make their lives worth living afterwards. Fiona was named a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2003 and won the Western Australia Citizen of the Year award for her contribution to medicine in the field of burns research. In 2005, she was made Australian of the Year by Prime Minister John Howard. She has been recognised as an 'Australian Living Treasure'. Fiona is director of the Burns Service of Western Australia, a consultant plastic surgeon at Fiona Stanley Hospital and Perth Children's Hospital, Winthrop professor in the School of Surgery at The University of Western Australia, and co-founder of the Fiona Wood Foundation. Remarkably she has achieved all of this while raising six children. In Under Her Skin, Sue Williams, a best-selling author and award-winning journalist who has written a number of best-selling biographies, most notably about Father Chris Riley, Father Bob Maguire, and Dr Catherine Hamlin, presents a searingly honest, no-holds-barred account of all aspects of Fiona Wood's remarkable life.