In Memory of Dr. Lavina Lickley

By Dr. John Semple (PGME Surgery)

Dr. Lavina Lickley (MD '62, PGME Surgery) was born in Toronto on August 11, 1936. She received her medical degree from the University of Toronto in 1962 and then became the sixth woman to complete the Gallie postgraduate training in surgery at the Toronto General Hospital. She completed a PhD in experimental medicine at McGill University in 1974. Dr. Lickley became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada in 1968 and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1977. She joined the staff of Women's College Hospital in 1974 and was cross appointed to the University of Toronto as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Surgery and Physiology. In 1989, Dr. Lickley was appointed Chief of Surgery at Women’s College Hospital, a position she held until 2000. As a surgeon, Dr. Lickley focused on breast cancer and was the principal investigator of research at the Henrietta Banting Breast Centre at Women’s College Hospital.

Dr. Lickley was an accomplished academic with special interest in glucose metabolism, thyroid disease and especially breast cancer, authoring 70 peer-reviewed journal publications and contributing to 30 book chapters. She delivered over 240 presentations at meetings or invitations to hospital and academic institutions around the world. She conducted clinical research in breast cancer and was involved in major clinical trials of breast cancer treatment and prevention.

Dr. Lickley was a great communicator. Her patients loved her. She was an excellent technical surgeon. She had a great sense of humour and became a constant and popular figure in all departments and all parts of Women’s College Hospital. If you were lucky, you might have been invited to her home for one of her many famous informal “soirées”. She was a remarkable entertainer and a superb chef in the classic French style of cooking. It remains a mystery how she managed to seat twenty of her hospital colleagues around a table built for eight. After dinner she would play Chopin or Mozart on her piano.

In 1988, she was the recipient of the Bruce Tovee Award, for her contributions to the educational activities of the Department of Surgery. Dr. Lickley stopped performing surgery in 2006 but continued working with breast cancer patients at Women's College Hospital. She was the first woman to be appointed at the rank of Professor in the Department of Surgery in Canada and was the first woman general surgeon in Canada with both an MD and PhD degree. She retired from practice in 2015.
 
In 2019 the University of Toronto inaugurated the Lavina Lickley Lifetime Achievement Award which recognizes faculty members who have demonstrated significant contributions to the Department of Surgery throughout their careers at the University of Toronto, providing a lifetime of exceptional professionalism through leadership, research, teaching, exemplary clinical care, administration, or public service. This is a fitting tribute to Dr. Lickley who was a pioneering cancer surgeon and researcher at Women’s College Hospital and the University of Toronto. In her long and distinguished career, she trained many surgeons, and mentored many researchers.