Dame Cecily Pickerill, one the first female plastic surgeons in New Zealand, was a trailblazer revolutionising the care of children with cleft and palates in the country. She studied at the University of Otago Medical School and worked with Professor Henry Pickerill on facial and jaw surgery. She married Professor Pickerill and trained and studied with him at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, in Plastic Surgery before returning to New Zealand. The Pickerills established Bassam Hospital in Lower Hutt, providing a unique service for children requiring plastic surgery, with cleft lips and palates, burn scars, and congenital deformities, championing the Dame’s vision for treating children early due to the profound social and developmental impacts for a lifetime. Dame Pickerill also recognised the profound role of maternal care in the post-operative period for children and planned for accommodation for mothers within the hospital to allow for nursing, which improved convalescence and prevented infections. Cecily was also a fierce advocate for women. She trained in a time when there were few women surgeons, certainly facing gender gender-biases and obstacles, yet she succeeded in bringing her vision to reality by serving as a pioneer female plastic surgeon in New Zealand. Her unwavering commitment to medicine earned her the first female medical dame in New Zealand. Dame Pickerill’s legacy lives on through the children’s lives whom she changed and the role model she serves for current and future female plastic surgeons. R. Harvey Brown. 'Pickerill, Cecily Mary Wise', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1998. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4p12/pickerill-cecily-mary-wise (accessed 27 January 2024)