Dr Sigourney Bonner (née Bell) completed a PhD at Cambridge University, focussing on paediatric brain tumours at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute.

Sigourney worked as a scientist at major pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and AstraZeneca before starting her PhD as, despite her top degree from a Russell Group University, a year in industry, summer placements, a scholarship award for top performing undergraduates, she wasn’t accepted onto PhDs, while fellow graduates with similar experiences were enrolled by the next term. It took another four years before Sigourney was successful.

Her passion for STEM outreach compelled her to set up BlackInCancer, while studying for her PhD at Cambridge, to highlight Black excellence in cancer research and medicine and tackle the huge disparities in access and provision of cancer care and survival rates for Black patients. Sigourney wanted to highlight that black people were “underrepresented in research” and “overrepresented in cancer mortality” and has been a huge driving force for change.

Building on the success of the first online BlackInCancer Week in October 2020, Siggy held the inaugural global BlackInCancer Conference in October 2022. She also launched the BlackInCancer Pipeline Programme which aims to redress Black under-representation in higher education and the cancer workforce.

“Until I started my PhD, I’d never met a black woman with a PhD…seeing black scientists working in this field is really important…Just because somebody can see a job exists doesn’t mean they feel it’s achievable, so seeing black scientists working in this field is really important.”

Read more about Black in Cancer here.

You can read some of her research here.