Cheung-Ping Chan was born in Shanghai, China on 10 May 1934. His father, Tin Wai, was a cashier and his mother, Shun Shou, was a teacher. He studied medicine at the University of Hong Kong from 1953 to 1959 and while he was there he was awarded the C. P. Fong gold medal in pathology in 1957 and the Gordon King prize in obstetrics for 1959. After graduating MB, BS, he travelled to the UK on a commonwealth scholarship from 1963 to 1964. He worked as a registrar at the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool in 1964 and passed the fellowship of the college that year. On his return to Hong Kong he was appointed chief of surgical services at the Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital and remained in that post from 1970 until 1989. A member of the police authority from 1989 to 1995, he also served as a member of the Pacific war memorial fund from 1989 to 2005. He was a volunteer captain with the Royal Hong Kong regiment (known as the Volunteers) from 1967 to 1995. In 1966 he married a nurse, Teresa So May Yuk and they had two children, Stephen and Christine, who both qualified MB, BS London in 1992 and 1993 respectively. Horse racing was his favourite sport and he was steward for racing control for the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club from 1989 to 1995. He died on 8 January 2021 aged 86.