Passing of a Legend – Sir Roy Calne, an Obituary

Sir Roy Calne, eminent transplantation surgeon and pioneer in organ transplantation, passed away peacefully on 6th January 2024, aged 93 years young. He leaves behind an unparalleled legacy of innovation in organ transplantation and countless lives touched by his compassion. He spent remarkable decades at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge as a transplantation surgeon, researcher and mentor. Roy's imprint on the field of organ transplantation cannot be overstated. His relentless drive to innovate surgical techniques and improve patient outcomes over decades of ground-breaking work has saved uncountable lives worldwide. Born to an automobile engineer, his interests lay instead on the reparation of the human machine – quite likely, the analogy of replacement of spare parts was a strong influence! He was inspired by Peter Medawar from Oxford working on immunological tolerance and was helped by him to get a fellowship at Boston to work with Joseph Murray (who did the first kidney transplantation between syngeneic twins – a procedure not requiring immune suppression!). In the US, he continued animal research in transplantation – frequently with success, and was also introduced to the use of azathioprine along with steroids. This was employed on his return to the UK with survival better than the use of irradiation for immune suppression! This spurred Prof. Calne to continue to work on better and safer drugs. His introduction of Cyclosporin developed by Sandoz, led to improvement in the results of kidney transplantation in the late seventies and, indeed, a renewed interest worldwide on other visceral transplantations. Even after retirement, he continued to work on transplantation research in Singapore. He performed the first kidney transplantation in Cambridge in 1965 and famously the first liver transplantation in Europe in 1968 (second in the world after Tom Starzl at Pittsburgh with whom he had a friendly rivalry), which was also the first use of the 'piggyback' reconstruction of the vena cava because of a size disparity between the donor and the recipient. He was a good collaborator – setup the Joint Liver Program with King's College Hospital, London, as well as with cardiac colleagues. He was also involved (with John Wallwork at the Papworth Hospital) in the first heart–lung–liver transplantation performed in the world as well as in paediatric liver, pancreatic and intestinal transplantation. His extracurricular pursuits included squash, tennis and skiing and a late interest in art acquired from the painter John Bellany after he was salvaged from liver failure by a timely liver transplantation. Many of Roy's paintings can be seen in the corridors of Addenbrooke's Hospital at Cambridge. Awards and accolades were inevitable and flowed as freely as the jokes about the blood loss involved in liver transplantation in those days. Important laurels included the Lister Medal for Surgery, Cameron Prize for Therapeutics, being elected to the Royal Society, the Lasker DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award along with Starzl, the Knighthood in 1986 and the Pride of Britain Awards in 2014. He is also represented in the National Portrait Gallery, London, alongside other great and famous – in three avtars including a diptych by Bellany painting Roy performing his transplantation operation. Even as he grew older, his passion for advancing the field of transplantation never wavered. He continued operating and pushing boundaries with newer, less invasive techniques to improve transplantation success. We had the delight of hosting him at the National Conference of the Indian Association of Surgical Gastroenterology at Amrita Institute, Kochi, in 2004, and he had an extended visit to Kerala along with Lady Calne. The interaction was extremely interesting, educating and wholesome, whether it was his quick wit, nostalgia over Addenbrooke's, toughly fought squash sessions at the indoor stadium at Kochi or watching on television England beat Australia in a Cricket match at a private dinner hosted for him and Lady Calne. The interaction rejuvenated the team at Amrita, which had just done Kerala's first successful liver transplantation a couple of months earlier. The global community has lost a true giant trailblazer, a rare breed of a brilliant scientist ahead of being a surgeon. As one of the founding fathers of transplantation, his legacy is woven into the lifesaving procedures we now take for granted as routine. He will continue to inspire us to save more lives from chronic end organ failure. Rest in Peace Sir Roy and heartfelt condolences to the family. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.