Roy Calne, pioneering transplant surgeon, dies aged 93

Tributes have been paid this week to the British transplant surgeon, Professor Sir Roy Calne, who has died at the age of 93...

Chris - The word pioneer is frequently overused in medical science, but there are a few who have deserved it more than Professor Sir Roy Calne, whose groundbreaking work not only helped to save and prolong the lives of thousands of people, but also transformed the profession's understanding of organ transplantation. During his remarkable career, Sir Roy conducted a series of scientific firsts. Europe's first successful liver transplant at Addenbrooke's Hospital here in Cambridge in 1968. The UK's first intestinal transplant in 1992 and the world's very first successful organ cluster transplant shortly after in 1994. All astonishing breakthroughs. But what made all of this possible was Roy Calne's visionary use of new immunosuppressive drugs that could prevent immune rejection, having achieved modest success with earlier generations of immune suppressing drugs. It was his use in 1978 of the agent cyclosporine that proved to be the greatest game changer as he later outlined to the General Medical Council.

Roy - It was really a watershed in transplantation because prior to cyclosporine there were only about 10 centres in the world seriously doing transplants. After cyclosporine, within two or three years, there were more than a thousand, because cyclosporine made kidney transplantation respectable.

Chris - Roy Calne was born in Richmond in Surrey on the 30th of December, 1930, he attended Dulwich Prep School in South London and then Lansing College in West Sussex. At the end of the Second World War, and at the tender age of just 16, this gifted student was accepted to study medicine at Guy's hospital in London. Calne would begin his military service with the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1953. It allowed him to travel the world with his girlfriend of the time, Patsy, who was a nurse at Guy's Hospital. Roy and Patsy subsequently married when they were in Hong Kong, and later raised four daughters and two sons. Sir Roy continued to travel widely, but it was his time spent here in Cambridge for which he will be best remembered. Professor Chris Watson, himself a transplant surgeon who worked with Roy Calne, has credited the great surgeon with putting the city on the map as an international centre for excellence.

Chris Watson - He wasn't your archetypal throwing instruments and shouting. It was much quieter. He didn't throw any instruments. He'd often have chamber of music or such like playing in the background while he operated. He was a very fast surgeon. This came from when he first started surgery and couldn't preserve organs out of the body for very long. So it really was an imperative to get on and implant them very quickly, so Roy was a very quick surgeon. If you had an idea and made a suggestion, he'd listen to you and he may follow your suggestion or tell you why it wasn't appropriate at that time. Very keen on chatting to other patients. Whenever he was in Cambridge, he'd make it a point to come to the evening ward rounds to see all the transplant patients and chapter them. And there'd be an entourage of sometimes 5, 10, sometimes 20 people following him around on the ward rounds. It's a bit intimidating for the patients. But actually Roy had a very good relationship with the patients and luckily he'd often sit some of them down and paint their portraits.

Chris - What do you think his legacy is? If you could just summarise it in a line, what picture would you paint of Roy Calne.

Chris Watson - He transformed transplantation both for those he directly operated on, but for the specialty as a whole in the immunosuppressants that he introduced and the possibility of chemical immunosuppression that he conceived of. His other legacy I think is in the people he trained, many of whom have gone on to great things. And he instilled in them this never say die aptitude that was characteristic of himself. You wouldn't say you can't do this because you'd seen Roy tackle things that you really thought were impossible and do it methodically and successfully.

Chris - Chris Watson there. Sir Roy was rightly recognised for his work. He was knighted in 1986 and he was given a Pride of Britain Award in 2014 that was presented by Katie Piper, who underwent a stem cell and cornea transplant after an acid attack. She is said to have told Roy that his work changed her life and allowed her to see her first child. Certainly the pioneering work conducted by Professor Calne has allowed many people to go on to lead happy, healthy, and active lives. One of them is Angela Dunn, who had a life-saving kidney transplant performed by him more than half a century ago in 1970. Angela has the longest lasting kidney transplant in the world and she spoke to me from a home in France where she remains happy and healthy.

Angela - I was transplanted in 1970 by Professor Calne who came one July evening to RAF Halton, where I was a patient, and gave me back my life. I'm not going to say that every time I spend a penny I think of Sir Roy, but there is that constant reminder that my kidney, and its functioning, is the result of what he did nearly 54 years ago.

Chris - Let's turn to Eric, your husband Eric, former RAF man. What's your recollection of Sir Roy Calne and the difference he made to Angela.

Eric - After the operation, he was so full of confidence and reassuring that you felt it had to go right and indeed it did. He was brilliant, a pioneer and all pioneers deserve respect. Brilliant.

Chris - The last time I spoke to the pair of you, you were both standing there talking to me on Zoom in France where you now live with glasses of red wine. I'm pleased to see that history is repeating itself. It's a bit colder, but you are still glass in hand, and hale and hardy by the look of it.

Angela - <laugh>. Well, we do our best. We're a little older. We follow the dog who is now 12, but thinks he's two. We try to follow his example.

Chris - Angela Dunn, transplant recipient and patient of Professor Sir Roy Calne. Remembering the great surgeon who died at the age of 93.

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Thank you to the Medical Research Council for the use of their clip of Sir Roy Calne featured in this content.