Valerie Beral

Dame Valerie Beral (28 July 1946 – 26 August 2022) was an Australian-born British epidemiologist, academic and a specialist in breast cancer epidemiology. She was Professor of Epidemiology, a Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford and was the Head of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford and Cancer Research UK from 1989.

Early life and education Valerie Beral was born in Australia on 28 July 1946, the younger daughter of Ilse (nee Rubel) and Herbert Beral, who had relocated to Australia from Bucovina (an area now split between Romania and Ukraine) in 1939. She completed her MBBS degree graduating with first-class honours from the University of Sydney in 1969. Beral then spent six months travelling the "hippie trail" through Asia of which she said "That taught me how much I wanted to work. But I still wanted to leave Australia."

Beral served on various international committees for the World Health Organization and the United States National Academy of Sciences. She also chaired the Department of Health's Advisory Committee on Breast Cancer Screening.

Million Women Study Beral was one of the leaders of the Million Women Study which was opened in 1997, and has recruited more than 1.3 million UK women over 50 via the NHS breast screening centres. The study is investigating how a woman's reproductive history can affect her health, with a particular focus on the effects of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). It is the largest such study in the world with one in four of UK women in the target age group participating.

In August 2003, Beral's group published results showing that taking HRT increases a woman's risk of developing breast cancer with an estimated 20,000 UK women aged 50–64 having possibly developed the disease between 1993 and 2003 due to HRT use.

Beral maintained close links with Australia but "could not imagine returning to live there". Aside from concerns that Australia would hold little for her partner, she joked that "The population's too small!" to satisfy her needs as an epidemiologist. She was survived by her husband, their two sons, two grandchildren, and her sister.

Honours and awards Donald Reid Medal in 2006 Beral was recognised by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for her ground-breaking work in cancer epidemiology and women's health, most notably through the Million Women study, as well as her earlier contributions to the School. Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (FRCOG) since 2000. Honorary Doctor of Medicine degree of the University of Aberdeen in 2005. Honorary Fellow at the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the University of Aberdeen since 2000. Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) for scientific contributions to epidemiology. Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) since 1999. Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours. Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours List "for eminent service to medicine and women's health through significant advances in cancer research and epidemiology, through seminal contributions to public health policy and as a mentor to young scientists." A portrait of Beral by photographer Anne-Katrin Purkiss was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, London for its permanent collection in 2011.