History

"Who is Imogen?" written by Professor Dame Janet Husband

Imogen is a very special parrot as she not only witnessed the birth of the International Cancer Imaging Society on a cold winter’s night back in 1998 but more importantly, she has been our treasured mascot ever since and, of course as you all know, our logo is based on her beautiful image.

Prof Husband with Imogen

Professor Rodney Reznek and I had been committed to establishing a Cancer Imaging Society since 1997 and with this objective we invited a group of ten radiologists who were specialists in cancer Imaging from different centres across the world to attend a meeting in London the following year. The purpose of the meeting was to establish the role of the Society and to appoint our first trustees. Following a long day of discussions we had arranged a small informal dinner in a private room at a new and trendy restaurant in Fulham. We were all very excited about our future society and many aspects of our governance and plans that had been agreed that day were further developed over dinner. However, at the very end of the evening, when everyone was very jolly and we had wined and dined exceedingly well, we realised that we needed a logo which would help to identify the society as a distinct independent entity. So we considered many different potential logos over our final glasses of wine but none seemed to fit perfectly – and it was nearly midnight! And then I saw her – Imogen, sitting silently in the middle of the table and clearly listening to every word that we had been saying throughout the evening! The perfect mascot. We were very fortunate as the owner of the restaurant generously donated Imogen to us as a memento of the occasion and Imogen, the fabulous china parrot, had found her new home!

So every year since then Imogen has been handed from President to President and as a result Imogen is a very well-travelled parrot. She has had a much more exciting life than sitting on a table in a crowded restaurant but she did suffer a little damage to one of her wings a few years ago. To help prevent any further mishaps, Professor Wolfgang Schima when President of ICIS, bought her a special case with a foam interior specially cut out to fit her shape to protect her. Thanks to Wolfgang she can now travel the world much more safely.

We hope you will join us and see Imogen at an ICIS Annual Teaching Course somewhere in the world! We look forward to meeting you and thank you for supporting our Society!

Past President Dr. Liliane Ollivier tells the story of the parrot.

Prof. Rodney Reznek co-founder of the Society talks about the organisation.