Chris Oppong

Chairman

Chris Oppong FRCS (Eng), FRCS (Gen Surg)

Chris is currently the Chairman of Operation Hernia.  He was one of the two co-founders of Operation Hernia along with its former CEO, Professor Andrew Kingsnorth.  Over the last 10 years Chris has organised over 60 Operation Hernia missions and led many of the teams of volunteers.

Chris is currently a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, UK and also an Examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He is a former Director of Cancer Services for Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust.  Chris is originally from Ghana, is married with three adult children and is an elder at Mutley Baptist Church in Plymouth.

Hedley Hunter

Treasurer

Hedley Hunter

Hedley rejoined the board of trustees as treasurer in 2017.  Hedley qualified as a Chartered Accountant in January 1960 and took a position as senior auditor with Cooper Brothers and Co. in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia since 1964) in central Africa.  During his 45 year career in Africa, he worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in the Ivory Coast as a professional accountant and acquired extensive experience in audit, accounting and as a consultant in company organisation and management. 

Hedley retired in 2005 and lives with his wife, Lise, in Devon where he spends his time as a volunteer looking after the finances of a variety of local charities including the Devon Branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and Operation Hernia. He has been an active member of Rotary International for the past 50 years.

Della Ball

Secretary

Della Ball RCN

Della is a registered nurse. She worked in the operating theatres at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth for 30 years.  She now is the theatre manager in a private practice.

Since joining the board of trustees of Operation Hernia she has been involved in several fundraising activities and has joined missions to Ghana and Rwanda, providing expert help and support during the hernia repair operations.

Arun Ariyarathenam

Arun Ariyarathenam MA, MB BChir, FRCS (Eng)

Arun completed his medical education at Magdalene College, University of Cambridge and gained his fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons of England, before being appointed as a Consultant Surgeon at the University Hospitals Plymouth. 

Arun is an Oesophago-gastric Cancer and General Surgeon. He is very in passion for teaching at both Undergraduate and Postgraduate level. He started working with Operation Hernia in 2015 by leading teams into Ghana and was subsequently appointed to the Board of Directors in 2018.

Shina Fawole

Mr Shina Fawole MBBS, FRCS, MD

Shina is a Consultant General & GI Surgeon in Wakefield, UK.  He graduated from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and then completed his specialist surgical training in Leeds & Leicester, UK. He holds a Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons and an MD degree, Keele University, UK. He has a specialist interest in various aspects of GI Surgery and hernia surgery including complex abdominal wall surgery and laparoscopic hernia surgery.  

He is a keen trainer, and has run several hernia training workshops in the UK and is an honorary Senior Lecturer with the University of Leeds, UK. He is a member of the Hernia Outcome Campaign which aims to improve access of patients to hernia surgery within the UK. 

Shina has been involved consistently with Operation Hernia since 2009 and has led several missions with a team from the UK and has supported OH in training ASIT fellows from the UK.

Jacob Akoh

Mr Jacob A Akoh MBBS, FMCS, FRCSEd, FWACS, FRCS(Gen), FICS, FEBS, FACS

Jacob Akoh is a Consultant General and Transplant Surgeon at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, United Kingdom. He is also Associate Professor of Surgery with University of Plymouth and until recently, a member of the Training Committee of the British Transplantation Society (BTS), a member of Council of BTS, Director of the South West Transplant Centre and Clinical Director of Surgery and Renal Services.

Jacob is an examiner for the Intercollegiate Specialty Board in General Surgery and Intercollegiate MRCS and ISCE examiner for the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry. He is a member of many medical societies and has published many articles in peer-reviewed journals and co-edited a book on dialysis access. He is a reviewer for fourteen international journals and a member of editorial board of six other journals. Jacob is an expert referee and peer reviewer for the Health Technology Assessment programme. He is also a Rater with the National Institute for Health Research Dissemination Centre

He is a Past President of the Medical Association of Nigerians Across Great Britain (MANSAG) and ex-officio member of the Nigeria Stroke Reference Group. He trains surgeons in several countries in Africa.

Ralph Lorenz

Ralph Lorenz (Germany)

Ralph graduated in medicine at the University of Leipzig in 1989.  Since 2000 he has been in private surgical practice in Berlin and has dedicated his efforts to hernia surgery. He has been Medical Director of the 3CHIRURGEN medical practice in Berlin since 2006 and from 2009 has taught in the European Surgical Institute – ESI Norderstedt.  He currently runs over 20 national and international courses each year covering various hernia surgical procedures.

Ralph is a member of European Hernia Society and board member of various surgical societies in Germany. He is a founder and scientific manager of the Berliner Hernientage – Berlin Herniadays – an international congress held each year since 2007.  He is also one of the founders and managers of a standardized education course in the field of hernia surgery – Hernie kompakt.

Ralph is a member of the Scientific Board of the German Hernia Registry, Herniamed GmbH, and since 2011 has been Vice President of the German Hernia Society. Since 2011 he has participated in various Operation Hernia missions to both West and East Africa and from 2012 he has managed and supported the projects in Rwanda.

Terry Irwin

Terry Irwin (Northern Ireland)

Terry is a Consultant Surgeon in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  He holds a Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons from both Edinburgh and London and has an MD, awarded after a period of full time research. He specialises in colorectal surgery, but has a long-standing interest in hernia surgery, in particular the repair of large complex abdominal hernias.

He is a keen surgical trainer, who has in the past been responsible for the surgical training scheme in Northern Ireland as Regional Advisor (now called Head of School).  He has been Clinical Director for Surgery in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.  Currently he is the Northern Ireland Director of Professional Affairs for the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He has a keen interest in surgical safety and has spoken and published on this theme.

erry is also a keen traveller, and until recently was the secretary of the Travelling Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He has travelled to Ghana with his wife Jenny, a theatre nurse,  to support Operation Hernia since 2008.

Kelly Shine

Kelly Shine (USA)

Kelly is a general surgeon in Frederick, Maryland, USA and she has had a life-long interest in international surgery.  This led her to Operation Hernia and her first volunteer trip in 2013 at the Volta Regional Hospital in Ho, Ghana.

As an Operation Hernia Ambassador, Kelly invites you to come join her and the other volunteers.  If you are a first time volunteer, you will benefit from the high level of organization that is in place.  If you are a seasoned volunteer, you will appreciate the volume of operating and teaching waiting to be done in various interesting and exciting locations.  Outside of work, Kelly enjoys time with her friends and family, sports and the natural world.