In 1812, Miranda Stewart's only hope of getting into medical school was to disguise herself as a man.

Under the name of James Barry, she became the first female registered doctor in Britain.

Judy is a plastic surgeon in Plymouth

Nearly two centuries later, more than 50% of medical students are women. Even so, it is still extremely rare for a woman to get to the top of her chosen speciality.

Judy Evans is an exception. She is one of only 16 female consultant plastic surgeons in the country. Her story is told in a major new TV series from the BBC called Medicine Women.

"From the day I decided I wanted to do surgery, I think people started to think I was mad. I couldn't get a job in London after I'd qualified as a London graduate. So I went to the other end of the earth to get a surgical job - I went off to Hong Kong."

A woman's touch

She eventually returned to the UK and now works in Plymouth in the South West. From breast reductions to nose jobs, she is in demand as a surgeon who brings a woman's mind to the reshaping of the human body and the female body in particular.

A woman's touch

She pours scorn on the old fashioned image of a male consultant who wears a bow tie and tells his patients only what he thinks they should hear.

"I think the medical profession as a whole have got to get away from that old image, and this is just one of the things I have found - as a woman - is quite easy to do. I think people want to know everything; they want to feel comfortable with the person that they're handing their life over to."

Judy: People have to feel comfortable with you

Plastic surgery itself still has an image problem thanks to the trivialised arena of Hollywood facelifts. But Judy is passionate about the benefits of plastic surgery, especially the lift it can give to those whose lives have been blighted by many types of cancer.

"Some people say, 'Oh, it's only cosmetic surgery'," she says. "But it isn't. You're repairing people's lives ... you're making life better for them."

Duty of care

Skin cancer is something she feels very strongly about. In the summer, you can find Judy on the beaches of the South West warning people about the dangers of sun worship.

She goes from beach towel to deckchair handing out leaflets.

Taking the message to the people

"I can't bear the idea that there is a disease there which is incurable, and the only reason that it isn't curable is because people don't come forward soon enough, or they've been told not to worry.

"I think that's where a surgeon has a responsibility to educate, because if people come forward with an early melanoma we can cure it with very minor surgery."

State of mind

Inevitably, it is in the area of breast reshaping that the sensitivities of her sex are most apparent.

Some might scoff at the need for breast enlargement, but Judy is clear about the impact it can have on a woman's life.

Breast reshaping is not trivial

One patient she treated in the series was virtually flat chested. After a two-year wait to get an operation, Judy was able to give her a B cup.

"There is a feeling that she has been able to do something for herself through me", says Judy.

"She has done something to change a past that she was unhappy with. It's like the old thing of saying, 'today is the first day of the rest of your life.'

"She came into hospital feeling she had the body of a child and left a couple of days later feeling she had the body of a woman."

It is this state of mind of the patient that Judy weighs up very carefully before agreeing to do an operation. She makes the point that she will not accept people who, though they are happy with their anatomy, still want an operation to impress someone else.

Personal sacrifice

Judy Evans has found considerable success in her professional life, but like many women in her position she pays a high price.

She works an 80-hour week and she is on call at nights and at weekends. That inevitably puts pressure on her private life. Her children, who are both in their teens, are at boarding school.

Husband Gerald needs constant care

And most difficult of all, she has a husband who suffers from Parkinson's disease. Gerald, also a qualified surgeon, was diagnosed at the age of 38.

He needs constant care, something Judy is thankful she is able to afford.

"Sometimes a patient might say to me, 'well of couse you can't understand, you don't know what I'm going through'. Or a relative will say, 'he's fine here but you've no idea what it's like to live with someone who's that ill'.

"And while we don't go on about our personal lives to our patients, it actually means that through that experience we do understand an awful lot more of what everybody else is going through."

Judy Evans is featured in Medicine Women, a major new series from BBC TV. The programmes look at the motivations, politics and humanity that have driven women to the top of their profession.

They are broadcast on Thursday nights at 22:20 BST on BBC1