Obituary for Dr Cecil Helman

Cecil Helman, Senior Lecturer in the UCL Research Department of Primary Care & Population Health died peacefully at the Royal Free Hospital on 15th June 2009 following a rapid deterioration of recently diagnosed motor neurone disease. Cecil was born in Cape Town in 1944 and qualified there as a doctor in 1967. He left South Africa in the early 70s and set out upon his career as an NHS general practitioner in London. Informed and inspired by working on 'medicine's frontline' with patients from so many different backgrounds and cultures, his interest grew in the humanistic side of medicine, especially the role of stories and narratives, and what they reveal about the inner world of both doctor and patient. He took a Postgraduate Diploma in Social Anthropology at UCL in 1972, and after a Fellowship in Social Medicine & Health Policy at Harvard Medical School in 1982?3, he returned to UCL to take up a part-time position as Senior Lecturer in Primary Care. As a result of his teaching, writing and research, Cecil achieved international renown as one of the foremost experts on medical anthropology, the cross-cultural study of health, illness and medical care. His book, Culture, Health and Illness , first published in 1984 has gone to five editions and remains the standard text in this field, used in medical and nursing colleges in over 40 different countries.