Michel Soukop

Oncologist

Born: April 15, 1947;

Died: November 1, 2016

DR Michel "Mike" Soukop, who has died aged 69, was a cancer specialist who formerly headed the oncology department at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and was named an OBE by the Queen on New Year's Day 2004 for his services to medicine.

A graduate of St. Andrew's, his career began at Dundee Royal Infirmary, and throughout that career he specialized in the diagnosis, treatment and possible prevention of cancer and became a leading light in cancer research. Countless patients said he had helped prolong their lives.

He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and of the Royal College of Physicians of London.

He was born in London on April 15, 1947, to an artistic family. His father Willi Soukop, born in Vienna to a Czech father and Austrian mother, fled the rise of the Nazis and settled in Dartington, Devon, where he became a renowned sculptor and would eventually die in 1995 in Glasgow, where he had moved to be close to his son Mike.

It was in Devon in 1945 that Willi Soukop married a beautiful French dancer, Simone Moser, who, under the name Simone Michelle, would become a leading exponent, teacher and choreographer of British modern dance, for which she is still revered to this day. She died in 2003.

Young Michel, soon known as Mike to friends and colleagues, moved from London to study medicine at St Andrews, where he graduated Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (BMBS) in 1971. It was the beginning of a career and life in Scotland, which he came to consider his home, especially Glasgow.

His first role on the wards was as a professional house officer at Dundee Royal Infirmary from 1971-72, followed by two years as senior house officer at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, where he would remain a consultant for many years.

Dr Soukop went on to be senior registrar at the University of Glasgow's Department of Medical Oncology (1975-79), consultant physician and senior lecturer at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and the head of the GRI's Department of Medical Oncology. He was also a cancer consultant at Glasgow's Ross Hall Hospital. His reputation took him for a time to the United States, where he was a popular visiting lecturer at the University of Wisconsin in the city of Madison.

By chance, or fortuity, he also served for a time in another Glasgow - Glasgow, Kentucky, USA - as a senior house officer at the Institute of Radiotherapy of Western Kentucky University. It was in that Glasgow, named after ours, that he enjoyed the American city's annual Highland Games.

Back in Scotland, he was a campaigner for Cancer Research UK and a regular writer on cancer for medical journals. For several years he was a director of the Milngavie company Tannoch Loch, Limited. He spent his spare time, running, skiing or painting.

Earlier this year, Dr Soukop hit the Glasgow headlines after he and his wife Margaret bought, for £605,000, an A-listed home at 11 Kirklee Terrace Lane, a former residence of the choreographer Peter Darrell, the founder and first artistic director of Scottish Ballet. The house, a mid-19th century former coach house just off the Great Western Road and next to the Botanic Gardens, had a brass plaque in honour of Mr Darrell but soon after the Soukops purchased the building, it collapsed during upgrade work. Glasgow City Council apparently became aware of the "demolition" only after it was reported in The Herald, after which the council said its planning enforcement officers were investigating the case.

Dr Soukop claimed that workers were merely trying to "upgrade" the building when it fell apart and that he planned to rebuild it. In a controversial decision in July this year Glasgow City Council gave him the green light to construct a new "dwelling house" a decision which did not go down well with neighbours, those suspicious as to whether the collapse was an accident and many who believed Glasgow had lost a little piece of its heritage.

But the man the Soukops bought the house from, Alan Crumlish, who had lived there for the previous 30 years after his friend the choreographer Peter Darrell died, told The Heralds: "I worked on it for 30 years under fairly heavy planning constraints. Even simple things like putting in a vent for a fire were refused. So, I was absolutely gobsmacked when I discovered it had been demolished. When I sold the house it had just about the highest calibre of home report that you could have hoped for with a property of that age. There were no structural issues. I knew that house very well.”

Dr Mike Soukop is survived by his wife Margaret (Tannahill Suttie) and their daughters.

PHIL DAVISON