Koon-Sung (‘KS’) Cheng was a vascular surgical registrar at the Royal Free Hospital, London. He was born in Hong Kong, but came to England with his family in 1977. When he arrived he spoke very little English, but made rapid progress at Uckfield Comprehensive School. He went on to study medicine at Queens’ College, Cambridge, specialising in pharmacology. He captained the College badminton team and played football, squash and chess. He went on to Addenbrooke's Hospital for his clinical training. After junior posts there, he was a senior house officer in the East Birmingham Hospital accident unit and later a registrar in general surgery at London Whittington Hospital and Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow. He decided on a career as a specialist vascular surgeon, and from 1998 to 1999 worked as a specialist registrar in the vascular unit at the Royal Free Hospital. He was then a research fellow there and published a number of papers and contributing chapters to several medical textbooks. He was due to move to Singapore as an assistant professor of vascular surgery, but was tragically killed in a road accident. He leaves a wife, Carol Susan.