LORD Chan of Oxton - the first Chinese person to be elevated to the House of Lords and a hugely influential paediatrician and tireless worker for ethnic minorities - has died, aged 65.
Tributes have poured in from friends and colleagues of Professor Lord Chan who died in Arrowe Park Hospital on Saturday evening after being taken ill at his Wirral home on December 31.
Michael Chew Koon Chan, born in Singapore, had trained as a medical student in Guy's Hospital in London where he met his wife Irene, and the couple returned to the Far East where they had two children, Ruth and Stephen.
The family later moved to Merseyside when Lord Chan was offered a job as a senior clinical lecturer at the Liverpool of Tropical Medicine in 1976.
Last night, his daughter Ruth said the family had been shocked at the suddenness of her father's illness.
She said her father had been a humble man who never talked down to people, as well as being a devoted and loving husband.
She said: "We were very proud for him when he was made a Lord. He had received the MBE in 1991 for being chairman of the Chinese Overseas Christian Mission. He was well-known for his charity work. People said he always made them feel at ease. To me he was a good example of what a person should be."
Lord Chan has been a member of the House of Lords on the Crossbenches since July, 2001. As a paediatrician, he has been closely involved in improving health services for patients from ethnic minorities.
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