Neil Raymond Hulton was, for more than 25 years, a consultant vascular and general surgeon at the Royal Oldham Hospital. He was born on 27 March 1954 and attended Haslington Grammar School where he was head boy. At Manchester University he studied medicine, graduating MB, ChB in 1977. In 1981 he passed the fellowship of the college and for a time worked at the Highfield Hospital in Rochdale. At the Royal Oldham he was acknowledged to be a pioneer in the use of laparoscopic surgery. To raise funding for a North West aortic aneurysm screening programme, he cycled from Lands End to John O’Groats. At the Pennine Acute Trust he was a divisional medical director and he was also the programme director for the NW deanery. Known as a gentle and self effacing person, he proved to be an empathetic colleague and trainer. Having planned to spend his retirement in the Tuscan village where he prided himself on his skills in pruning the olive trees, he sadly developed metastatic colon cancer in 2016 and died of brain metastases on 29 September 2020, aged 66. He is survived by his wife Lynn and children Alex and Jess. In 2024 the Royal Oldham embarked on a huge programme of rebuilding and providing new facilities and the decision to name the new building the Hulton Building after Neil in honour of his achievements was a popular one with all the staff who had known him.