George J M Abouna was a pioneering transplant surgeon who worked in the United States, Canada and the Middle East. He created many firsts in organ transplantation and, over the course of a career which spanned more than 50 years, saved thousands of lives across the world. Abouna was a true master of

Ali Bakran was a consultant and vascular surgeon at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital when he drowned while on holiday in the Maldives. He was born in Hyderabad on 15 January 1949 but his family moved to the UK and settled in Salford when he was a small boy. He attended primary school in Salfo

Anthony ('Tony') Barnes, a consultant surgeon at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, was in the vanguard of renal transplantation in the UK and made major contributions to the establishment of the specialty. He was born on 19 June 1934 in Brighton and as a teenager during the Second World War was

Eufrasio Bengoechea Gonzalez was a vascular and transplant surgeon from Toledo, Spain. He specialised in surgery in the UK, becoming a fellow of the Edinburgh college in 1961 and of the English college in 1962. For the next 10 years he worked in Northampton, Nottingham, Chester, Liverpool and Tulane

Roger Blamey was professor of surgical science at Nottingham and a pioneering breast surgeon who developed the world-famous Nottingham prognostic index (NPI). He was born in London on 16 March 1935, the son of John and Cara Blamey. From Highgate School he went to Downing College, Cambridge, where he

Sir Roy Calne was a professor of surgery at the University of Cambridge and a pioneering transplant surgeon.

Rene Wen Suen Chang studied medicine at London University and trained at the Westminster Hospital Medical School. In London he worked as a house surgeon at the Whittington Hospital and registrar at St Stephen’s Hospital, before gaining his fellowship of the college and moving to Saudi Arabia as seni

William James Dempster, known as ‘Jim’, was a transplant researcher and surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital, London. He was born on the island of Ibo, north of Madagascar, on 15 March 1918, although his birth was not registered until 28 April and his birth certificate was not issued until 9 August of that

Nick Digard, a native of the Channel Islands, was born on 7 April 1951. His father, Joseph Claude Digard, was a civil servant. His mother, Jean née Hadfield, was a financial administrator. He was educated at Pierre Du Bois School and Elizabeth College, Guernsey, and studied medicine at University Co

Rudolf Pichlmayr was a pioneering German transplant surgeon. He was born on 16 May 1932 in Munich, Germany. He graduated from the University of Munich Medical School in 1956, and in 1959 started his career in medicine at the same university. He qualified as a surgeon in 1964. In 1967, he presented h

Ross Taylor was a consultant surgeon, director of the transplantation unit at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, and a pioneer of kidney transplantation. He was born in Calcutta, India, on 10 December 1932, the son of George Ross, a medical practitioner, and Helen Baillie Murray. The family ha

Norman Shumway was the father of cardiac transplantation and performed the world’s first heart-lung transplant. Unlike some of his contemporaries who sought the limelight, Shumway spent a decade carrying out research into cardiac transplantation before he was ready to do the operation on a live reci