Lord Chan passes away, 65
Only peer of Chinese descent in the House
Andrew Roth
Monday February 13, 2006
The Guardian
The Singapore-born Lord Chan, who has died aged 65 was the House of Lords' only peer of Chinese origin. One of his medical specialities during his last decade as Liverpool University's professor of ethnic health had been the vulnerability of ethnic minorities.
He was long-serving lecturer and consultant at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and an outstanding member of Liverpool's Chinese Christian community. In 2001 he became one of the so-called "people's peers".
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He proved an outstanding success. After last May's election, he spoke in critical support of the new government's health programme, warning against inadequate anti-MRSA precautions. The year before, he joined Baroness Cox in condemning the Burmese military dictatorship, defending not only Aung San Suu Kyi but, even more, the Burmese Christians who are a special target of the Buddhist military.
He was a staunch, campaigning defender of all minorities. Writing to the Times in April 2004, as vice president of the Wirral Multicultural Organisation, he warned: "Equality of opportunity and equity of access to employment and promotion are essential safeguards against the dangerous voices of extremism."
He was born in still-colonial, Singapore, the son of a headmaster. He took his father's Christian name of Michael because the family were part of Singapore's Christian minority. Educated at Singapore's top Raffles Institution, he went on to study medicine at Guy's Hospital, where he met his wife Irene Wei-Len Chee, whom he married in 1965. They returned to Singapore, where he became a lecturer and consultant paediatrician at the University of Singapore.
Having a special interest in diseases of the blood, he returned to London in 1974 to study Von Willebrand's Disease at the University of London Institute of Child Health at Great Ormond Street Hospital. From 1976 he spent 18 years at the Liverpool School of Medicine as a senior clinical lecturer and consultant paediatrician. He helped train Indian doctors, especially paediatricians.
In 1994, he became director of the Leeds-based NHS Ethnic Health Unit, which financed health programmes for vulnerable ethnic minorities. From 1999 he became a director of two successive north-western primary health trusts. He joined the Sentencing Panel in 1999 and contributed heavily to the Commission on the Future of Multicultural Britain under its chairman, Lord Parekh, who reported in 2000. He joined the Press Complaints Commission in 2002.
In his Who's Who entry, he cited his enjoyment of "preaching". He was a church elder at Liverpool's Chinese Gospel Church. He also served as chairman of the Overseas Christian Mission, which kept him in touch with events such as the oppression of Christians in Burma.
He is survived by Irene and their son and daughter.
· Michael Chew Koon Chan, Lord Chan of Oxton, paediatrician, born March 6 1940; died January 21 2006
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