Ezzat Radi Elias was born in Khartoum, Sudan on 16 August 1942, the eldest son of Radi, a Presbyterian minister and Farida Yassa (Awad). Educated at the Evangelical High School and the University in Cairo he graduated MB, BCh with honours in 1965. As a British Council scholar he studied at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School gaining his PhD degree in 1973. He became FRCPS Glas, FRCS Ed in 1978 and FRCS (and MB, BS London) in 1979. Besides holding a registrar post at Hammersmith Hospital he became lecturer in medicine, University of Khartoum and visiting Associate Professor in the American University of Beirut. He died in 1984.