Neil MacDonald was a consultant surgeon at the Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester. He was born on 29 October 1927 in Suffolk, the son of E A MacDonald. He was educated at Ipswich Grammar School and Epsom College, from which he won a scholarship in science to the London Hospital Medical College in 1945

Gaston Benett was born on 12 November 1922 in Poudre D'Or, Mauritius, the son of Raymond Benett, a hospital pharmacist, and his wife, Suzanne, née Davis, a teacher. He attended the Royal College in Mauritius from where he won a scholarship to Cambridge for his pre-clinical studies. He then entere