Gawn McIlwaine worked as a Consultant Ophthalmologist in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh for 10 years and returned to Belfast in 2005 where he currently works as a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at the Mater Hospital in Belfast.

He qualified in medicine at the Queens Universtity, Belfast. He has trained in Glasgow, Toronto and London. He has extensive experience in small incision phaco cataract and implant surgery.

He gained his clinical Fellowship in Paediatric Ophthalmology at the Sick Children’s Hospital in Toronto and in Neuro-ophthalmology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurological Diseases in London. He undertook his sabbatical in Neuro-ophthalmology at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.