Dhun Jal Irani née Sumariwalla was a general surgeon in Bombay, India. She was born in Bombay, the eldest daughter of Jaiji D Sumariwalla and Dinshaw Cawasji Sumariwalla, and had three brothers and three sisters. A very studious individual, Dhun received her early education in various institutions in India. She gained her MB BS from the King Edward Medical College and Hospital, University of Bombay, in 1949 with high distinction. She gained an MD in surgery and crossed continents to the UK in 1955, where before long she was awarded the FRCS from the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and of Edinburgh. A lifelong learner and natural teacher, she would later add an FRCS from the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland to her string of accolades. These are superb achievements by any measure. Yet they are truly astonishing when we bear in mind that Mrs Irani's was an era when few women became surgeons anywhere in the world, and even fewer made the commitment to a long and continuous career in surgery, as it required them to both excel and face down gender inequality - and effectively meant giving up any hope of raising a family. Unperturbed by any of these factors, she travelled to the US, Nigeria, Ireland and Saudi Arabia to further her experience and expertise. The brutal Biafran Civil War in Nigeria interrupted her surgical practice there. She was evacuated from Port Harcourt with just the clothes on her back, to London where her sister, Mehroo Aziz, who had followed her footsteps into medicine, was living and working alongside her husband, M A Aziz. After several years away from her beloved native land, Dhun returned to Bombay to look after her ageing parents and, late in life, also found a husband, Jal Irani - by which time she was gradually retiring from surgical practice. After her marriage to Jal, she ultimately settled in Pune, where she spent the rest of her life, outliving him by several years. Dhun was as exceptional as a person as she was a medical-surgical practitioner. She was a kind and gentle human being, beloved of her siblings, respected by friends and neighbours, and a great inspiration to more than one generation of nieces and nephews. Thanks at least in part to the inspiration he received as a young man when Dhun took him with her into the operating theatre, one of her nephews, Salim Aziz, went on to become an internationally-renowned US-based cardiothoracic surgeon. One of her younger nieces, Sanaea, writes: 'Aunty Dhun…was strong, disciplined, dedicated and humble but firm. She did not care for worldly possessions; being simple was her virtue….She inspired me as a role model. One of my valuable possessions is her very own stethoscope that she gifted me and which I vowed to use only when I became worthy of it, like she was. I hope as I pursue a career a medicine, someday I can make her proud.' Another niece, Razia said: '…she devoted herself to surgery without any regret about what she had to give up in order to pursue her career …she was compassionate and gentle, and she also had a naiveté about her which was at times charming - and at times confounding! Her good nature did not prepare her for the devious ways of the world; yet she navigated all of it for more than nine decades with an inner strength and outer charm.' She died on 9 January 2015, aged 90. We, her brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews have nothing but fond and loving memories of our dear Dhun. She blazed a trail for later generations, and she offered those around her the best of herself.