A Falmouth art student has been working with Derriford Hospital on a life-saving project that will help cancer patients.

Hannah Berrisford, who is in her second year at Falmouth University, was asked by oesophago-gastric surgeons at the hospital to draw a set of diagrams enabling them to teach an innovative procedure. Hannah said: “It is a relatively new procedure developed at the hospital where part of the gullet is surgically removed, the two remaining ends are sewn or stapled together, and the team wanted a set of drawings to guide surgeons."

Hannah, 21, carried out the commission as work experience on her drawing degree course at the university. “It was a good learning experience and gave me insight into working with medical clients and a feeling of having helped with something important that would have a positive impact on people suffering from cancer,” she said.

“I worked remotely on screen with a team of five surgeons. I was sent a video to work from and froze the images in order to create simplified diagrams, a bit like the diagrams you might find in a car maintenance manual.

“It was important to watch the operation on video as I wouldn’t have been able to understand the human body which would have meant the project would have failed, perhaps in the same way you need to understand the workings of a car before trying to explain them.”

Hannah’s drawings were then used as part of a presentation to surgeons from all over the world at an international conference in Singapore, and are expected to be published with a paper by the oesophago-gastric team in a specialist medical journal.

Surgeons from the Oesophago-Gastric Centre at Derriford Hospital thanked Hannah for her patience throughout the process and for producing “really excellent illustrations of a difficult procedure…as we understood our technique in more detail.”

Dr Ginny Button, director of Falmouth School of Art at Falmouth University, said: “Falmouth’s top objective is to equip our students with the skills and experiences they need to thrive in their chosen fields. For me, Hannah’s project goes beyond work experience, showing us how collaborations between the creative arts and science can produce amazing results.”