Doctor Tom Backhouse: Rotary Club of Kenilworth Citizen of the Year, 2006

It is no exaggeration to say that the whole of Tom Backhouse’s professional life and a significant proportion of his private life have been devoted to helping people suffering from the ravages of cancer. In a career covering over 40 years he has witnessed and made his own notable contribution to the increasingly effective treatments of the disease.

A Fellow of the Royal College of Radiology he is a former president and for several years lectured at the School of Radiography playing a major role in the training of radiography students.

Born in Horwich, Lancashire, he studied at Cambridge University where, in addition to obtaining his degree he was also awarded a Hockey Blue. After specialising in radio-therapy during his medical training at Middlesex Hospital, he practised at London’s Mount Vernon Hospital before moving to Kenilworth in 1957. Although living in the town, he worked at the Coventry and Warwick Hospital as one of the only two consultant radiologists active there at that time.

Research in succeeding years, and the development of advanced cancer treatments including chemo-therapy, led to such an expansion of services that his responsibilities spread to include the huge Walsgrave Hospital and ultimately to the provision of a new ocology department there. Tom had been instrumental in planning, designing and overseeing the operation of this new radio-therapy department and accordingly was appointed head of the department, a position he held until he retired in 1987.

During his career he had identified the need for specific medical and nursing care for the terminally ill. It is not surprising, therefore, that twenty years or so ago, together with the then Bishop of Coventry, he began a project to provide such special care identifying a site, planning, negotiating and raising the money to build the present Myton Hamlet Hospice. He went on remain a Trustee for several years.

Tom and his wife Margaret have a long and close association with St. Nicholas Church where he has steadfastly supported his wife in her church offices and himself served as a sidesman, a reflection perhaps of being the son of a vicar. Although he claims to be no longer an active sportsman he has played competitive tennis and squash and is still a keen and regular walker.

Highly regarded among his medical contemporaries, and widely respected for his sympathetic approach, his ability to put people at their ease is summed up by the words of one grateful patient “You feel better just for seeing him”.