He attended Robert Gordon's College (Aberdeen; 1950–63), becoming school captain and gaining the Otaki Shield for the pupil outstanding in character, leadership and athletics.
[2] Two years later he obtained the Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians (MRCP UK) and developed an interest in both general and renal medicine.
Research into the bone disease associated with renal failure led to an MD (Hons) in 1975 and a Harkness Fellowship of the Commonwealth Fund of New York to study medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston.
He was a member of the South East London Strategic Health Authority and sought to promote interprofessional education in healthcare.
The establishment of the organization was controversial, having been criticized in the Guardian[11][12] and the British Medical Journal[13][14][15][16][17] over links to the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health and its promotion of complementary medicine.
At the beginning of 2012 for five years he became chairman of both Lathallan School[20] and Dignity in Dying , an organisation seeking to legalise assisted suicide for terminally ill adults.