Lord Chan passes away, 65
Only peer of Chinese descent in the House
Andrew Roth
Monday February 13, 2006
The Guardian
The Singapore-born Lord Chan, who has died aged 65 was the House of
Lords' only peer of Chinese origin. One of his medical specialities
during his last decade as Liverpool University's professor of
ethnic health had been the vulnerability of ethnic
minorities.
He was long-serving lecturer and consultant at the Liverpool School
of Tropical Medicine and an outstanding member of Liverpool's
Chinese Christian community. In 2001 he became one of the so-called
"people's peers".
Article continues
He proved an outstanding success. After last May's election, he
spoke in critical support of the new government's health programme,
warning against inadequate anti-MRSA precautions. The year before,
he joined Baroness Cox in condemning the Burmese military
dictatorship, defending not only Aung San Suu Kyi but, even more,
the Burmese Christians who are a special target of the Buddhist
military.
He was a staunch, campaigning defender of all minorities. Writing
to the Times in April 2004, as vice president of the Wirral
Multicultural Organisation, he warned: "Equality of opportunity and
equity of access to employment and promotion are essential
safeguards against the dangerous voices of extremism."
He was born in still-colonial, Singapore, the son of a headmaster.
He took his father's Christian name of Michael because the family
were part of Singapore's Christian minority. Educated at
Singapore's top Raffles Institution, he went on to study medicine
at Guy's Hospital, where he met his wife Irene Wei-Len Chee, whom
he married in 1965. They returned to Singapore, where he became a
lecturer and consultant paediatrician at the University of
Singapore.
Having a special interest in diseases of the blood, he returned to
London in 1974 to study Von Willebrand's Disease at the University
of London Institute of Child Health at Great Ormond Street
Hospital. From 1976 he spent 18 years at the Liverpool School of
Medicine as a senior clinical lecturer and consultant
paediatrician. He helped train Indian doctors, especially
paediatricians.
In 1994, he became director of the Leeds-based NHS Ethnic Health
Unit, which financed health programmes for vulnerable ethnic
minorities. From 1999 he became a director of two successive
north-western primary health trusts. He joined the Sentencing Panel
in 1999 and contributed heavily to the Commission on the Future of
Multicultural Britain under its chairman, Lord Parekh, who reported
in 2000. He joined the Press Complaints Commission in 2002.
In his Who's Who entry, he cited his enjoyment of "preaching". He
was a church elder at Liverpool's Chinese Gospel Church. He also
served as chairman of the Overseas Christian Mission, which kept
him in touch with events such as the oppression of Christians in
Burma.
He is survived by Irene and their son and daughter.
· Michael Chew Koon Chan, Lord Chan of Oxton, paediatrician, born
March 6 1940; died January 21 2006
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,1708226,00.html
