For this issue of the QUOD newsletter, we are delighted to shine the spotlight on Amanda Gibson-Mills, Perioperative Team Lead for the Leeds National Organ Retrieval Service (NORS) team.
Amanda leads the liver transplant NORS and elective hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) service within the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT), managing a team of around 40 staff, while remaining actively involved in clinical work. Despite the demands of leadership, she’s not one for sitting behind a desk all day and enjoys being hands on, supporting anaesthetics, problem-solving on the day, or heading out on retrievals with the NORS team. Amanda is also the lead Perfusion Practitioner for normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) and OrganOx normothermic machine perfusion. Leeds has recently established itself as an NRP centre, and she has been instrumental in setting up the service.
Amanda provides key support to the QUOD Biobank, coordinating sample collection by the Leeds NORS team. Her involvement begins with her team ensuring a sufficient stock of QUOD boxes and equipment, such as the centrifuge and biopsy guns, and checking the surgeons have everything they need to take the samples. She oversees the whole process, making sure samples are handled correctly, whether that’s reminding the team on the ground to centrifuge blood and urine samples or making sure the biopsies are collected into the correct storage tubes. Her role ends with the NORS team handing the QUOD box over to the QUOD regional lab team in Leeds when they return following the retrieval.
Amanda’s journey at LTHT spans an impressive 28 years, having started at the age of 18 as a Theatre Support Worker. LTHT offered her a secondment to train as an Operating Department Practitioner and she was awarded her diploma in 2008. During her training, a placement within the HPB liver transplant service confirmed to her that this was where she wanted to be. Through sheer determination and hard work, she worked her way towards leadership, shaping services and supporting teams through some of their most challenging times.
What drew Amanda to organ donation, and what keeps her there, is the ability to see the difference made to patients’ lives. She values the relationships built with the recipients and families, and the feedback that comes with hearing patients are doing well. Her first experience of organ procurement at the age of 19, supported by SNOD Julie Jeffries, opened her eyes to the wider impact of donation and transplantation as she vividly remembers hearing where all the organs had gone on to.
Amanda speaks about team culture with a real sense of pride. While she realises that retrieval work isn’t for everyone, many members of her team have been there for over 15 years. There is a strong emphasis on the importance of wellbeing, debriefing after retrievals, and mutual support, particularly on difficult days. She believes that compassionate leadership is essential, and staying connected to clinical work helps her remain grounded and attuned to her team’s needs.
Her leadership style has been shaped by role models, such as Cecelia McIntyre, then NORS lead in Newcastle, whom she met early in her career and who demonstrated that effective leadership and active clinical practice can go hand in hand. Amanda leads by example, encouraging openness, asking for help, and removing ego, reiterating the importance of positive leadership. She believes that creating a positive environment rolls out beyond the team and can make what can be difficult situations really positive. Little touches, such as having names on scrub hats and providing hot drinks and biscuits, to make sure everyone is looked after can have a hugely positive knock-on effect.
Reflecting on her career, Amanda feels she was always destined to work in a hospital setting. She fondly recalled weekends with her late father, who worked at the Leeds General Infirmary, helping him with his work from the age of 5. She has a sense that he helped to shape her career, with him spending time as a patient in some of the departments she later went on to work in. She feels incredibly lucky and privileged to work in transplant services and is proud of the Leeds team’s collective impact. Her journey is a powerful reminder of how dedication, compassion, and teamwork can transform both services and lives.
Outside of work, Amanda stays just as busy. Her 16-year-old son is 2nd Dan at kickboxing and her instinct to help and support others extends beyond the workplace to her son’s team, and she is actively involved with various roles, including facilitating on top tables doing scoring, ushering competitors to the correct mats, and making sure the referees are in place. Kickboxing has taken Amanda and her son to many competitions, both nationally and internationally, and she is excited for their upcoming trip to Abu Dhabi planned later this year. We hope Amanda also prioritises down time in her very busy life and can take time out to enjoy Abu Dhabi in the summer. We wish them all the best of luck!