A FORMER boxer has been elected to a top post with the British Medical Association.
Brain surgeon Thomas (Rab) Hide, clinical director of the Institute of Neurological Sciences in Glasgow, confessed yesterday he had ''dabbled'' in the sport as a student.
However, he threw his weight behind the BMA's long-standing campaign to have the sport banned, having seen at first hand the toll it has taken on its participants over the years.
Mr Hide, who begins a three-year stint as chairman of the Scottish Committee for Hospital Medical Services, representing hospital consultants, said: ''There are other sports where you risk injury, of course, but with boxing there is this ethical issue that the object is to inflict brain damage.''
The latest casualty, Spencer Oliver, 22, underwent a three-hour operation in London to remove a blood clot from his brain after he was hurt in the ring on Saturday. Doctors said yesterday he was expected to recover.
Mr Hide, whose own special interest has been neurosurgery in children, is preparing to fight his colleagues' corner in the corridors of Holyrood. ''The parliament will have the right to review terms and conditions of service and it is our job to make sure we don't lose out,'' he said.
Mr Hide, who graduated from Glasgow University in 1960, was president of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons from 1994-96.
q The parents of Scots boxer Jim Murray admitted yesterday that they broke down in tears when they watched a video highlighting their son's life. Scottish Television sent the tape, due to be transmitted as part of the Scottish Heroes series tomorrow night, to Margaret and Kenneth Murray. The 25-year-old bantamweight boxer died after a British title fight with Drew Docherty in Glasgow in October 1995.
In the ring Page 21
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