MICHAEL FRENCHOne of North Staffordshire's best-known surgeons, Dr Michael French, died on July 21, 2009, aged 67.Dr French had set up a kidney transplant unit at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire with his late wife Catherine.Dr French, who lived in Clayton, qualified from Cambridge University at the age of 23.He spent time working at Guy's Hospital in London, before training for surgery in South Africa and then taking a job as a senior registrar in Oxford.Dr French moved to North Staffordshire to take his first consultant job in 1983.As a consultant urology surgeon, his routine work included operating on patients with prostate problems, bladder cancer and kidney stones.He was also involved in harvesting kidneys from donors to transplant operations at other centres.Dr French's son Timothy said he thought his parents were the only husband and wife to set up a transplant team virtually on their own. He explained that his mother did the tissue-typing and his father did the operating.Dr and Mrs French had enjoyed spending time together in their garden.But sadly in 2005 Mrs french was diagnosed with cancer and her husband retired. She underwent two operations but died in August 2007.After that Dr French suffered problems with his own health.He was found dead at his home and an inquest decided he had taken his own life through an overdose.Paying tribute to Dr French, Dr Keith Prowse, retired medical director at the hospital, said: "He was an extremely hard-working surgeon who cared deeply about his patients."
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