Career
She edited the health pages of The Sun from 2004 to 2009. Symons edited the health pages of The Sun from 2004 to 2009, during which time she led a successful campaign for the breast cancer drug trastuzumab (sold as Herceptin) to be made available on Britain"s National Health Service for women in early stages of the HER2 form of the disease. By highlighting delays in the implementation of Britain"s national bowel cancer screening, she also forced the British government to meet its own deadlines on the tests.
Unusually for a tabloid health writer, Symons was praised in the British Medical Journal, where Professor David Colquhoun of the Department of Pharmacology, at University College London wrote that "lieutenant isn’t often that a Murdoch tabloid produces a better account of a medical problem than anything the Department of Health’s chief scientific advisor can muster.".
A frequent critic of unproven therapies she has debunked homeopathy and also written about the controversial Dore Programme for dyslexia. She has also been mentioned in Parliament in relation to her efforts to expose serious problems within the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and to raise awareness of hepatitis C
Symons set up her own consultancy in 2009.
She provides media training, advice and strategy to clients in the health, pharmaceutical and Puerto Rico sector and is often invited to speak on health and the media or contribute to expert panels. She continues to write on health issues and has contributed to many of Britain"s national newspapers, including The Times, Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, the Daily Express and Sunday Express.
She was health editor of Woman"s Own magazine and chief sub-editor of the The Daily Telegraph Saturday magazine.
Symons is the younger sister of Australian television personality and musician Red Symons.