Video: Women speak after 'unnecessary' cancer surgery Two women have spoken out after receiving allegedly unnecessary surgery for breast cancer by a doctor who is thought to have misdiagnosed at least 450 women. One of the pair, Helen Gardiner, explained the complex impact of having received surgery that may not have been required, saying it had affected her relationships with both her family members and work colleagues. Helen Gardiner and Gail Biochot are being represented by solicitor Kashmir Uppal in a bid to win compensation. Our priority is to try and give them some quality of life for the trauma that they've been through. They've had unnecessary surgical procedures, unnecessary surveillance and monitoring. The quality of their lives, their families' lives have been affected. The surgeon who operated on the women, Ian Stuart Paterson, who has practised at NHS and private hospitals in the West Midlands since 1994, was stopped from carrying out breast surgery by the GMC last year. He is suspected of performing "lumpectomy" surgery on the 450 instead of performing simple biopsies to check for cancer, and leaving the other 700 at a higher risk of cancer returning. The "cleavage-sparing" operation he invented involves leaving some breast tissue intact for cosmetic reasons, but it is not approved in Britain.