Lisa Newton was a highly-respected consultant haematologist at Bradford Royal Infirmary with a specialist interest in lymphoma. Kindness, compassion, selflessness, uncompromising professional standards and a genuine devotion to her patients were Lisa’s defining qualities.
Lisa was born in Leeds but grew up in rural Derbyshire, where she enjoyed a happy childhood with her parents Edward and Janet, and her sister, Nicola. The family home was shared with a variety of pets, including a Dalmatian, two cats and even a pair of geese, kindling a lifelong love of animals. It was at this time that Lisa acquired her first pony, Lady, and her passion for horses began.
Lisa learnt from her parents to aim high, work hard and tackle challenges head on – qualities that endured throughout her life and career. She attended John Port School in Etwall, where she was a popular student, forming several lifelong friendships. She excelled academically, but also found time to enjoy a number of extracurricular activities, including netball, hockey and art, possessing a particular talent for drawing. In the summer of 1985, between completing her ‘A’ levels and starting university, Lisa was fortunate to attend the Live Aid charity rock concert at Wembley Stadium – a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience with an estimated worldwide television audience of over 1.5 billion.
With her love of animals, Lisa had initially considered training as a vet, but instead studied medicine at Sheffield University. Here she also undertook an intercalated BMedSci in pathology. Lisa enjoyed travel abroad and spent her student elective in the department of hepatology at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong.
She graduated in 1991 and spent her junior clinical years in Sheffield, before joining the registrar training rotation in haematology in West Yorkshire, where she worked in the Leeds/Bradford and surrounding regional hospitals, making her name in the specialty and forming enduring friendships. In 2000, Lisa was appointed as a consultant haematologist at Bradford Royal Infirmary.
Lisa’s youth, energy and enthusiasm were great catalysts to departmental development. She recognised the importance of multidisciplinary working and was instrumental in establishing and developing an effective multidisciplinary team linking the Bradford and Airedale Trusts with the tertiary centre in Leeds. She initiated a greatly-valued obstetric haematology clinic for mothers with thrombotic/haemostatic problems and developed a successful haematology e-consultation service for GPs. She was clinical lead for lymphoma, lead clinician for haematology, intrathecal chemotherapy and the teenager and young adult service, and later became lead clinician for haematology, oncology and palliative care at Bradford NHS Foundation Trust.
Lisa was widely recognised as an outstanding consultant, both in Bradford and throughout the Yorkshire region, and her professional expertise was appreciated by colleagues and patients alike. She gave her all to haematology, yet her knowledge and clinical acumen went far beyond her own specialty. Such was her flair for diagnosing obscure conditions that her opinion on diagnosis and treatment was sought and valued by colleagues from many other specialties.
Lisa was striking and elegant, and was renowned for her impeccable dress sense and trademark heels and handbags. She was cheerful, friendly, enthusiastic and fun-loving, with a radiant smile, and had a great capacity to put patients and colleagues at ease. She could charm and lead the most awkward in the right direction. In both her clinical and managerial work she maintained the highest professional and personal standards and expected nothing less from her colleagues.
Lisa was a natural and tolerant teacher and taught as she led – by example. She was patient and approachable, and was genuinely keen to help her students and junior colleagues to prepare for exams and progress their careers.
Lisa was well-organised, efficient, fair and generous and was greatly respected for her knowledge, humour, common sense, compassion and commitment. She was devoted to her patients, who were at the heart of everything she did. She took great care to be kind to each of them and to always treat them as people – listening, explaining clearly and empathising. She would spend as much time with patients as was needed in order to fully understand their concerns, and to reassure them whenever required. She even learnt some basic British Sign Language to help build rapport with a deaf patient.
Outside of work Lisa led a very active lifestyle. She was passionate about horses and an accomplished horsewoman – enjoying jumping, hacking and dressage with her beloved horses, Min and Skye. Throughout her career, she would diligently muck out and tend to her horses early in the mornings, then magically transform her appearance and still arrive on time for work immaculately presented and glamorous as ever.
She was a knowledgeable and expert gardener, and cook, and a charming hostess – indeed, her dinner parties were eagerly anticipated. When not hosting herself, she could be relied upon to rescue her less talented friends from culinary catastrophe.
Lisa was a keen walker and loved to spend time with friends exploring the great outdoors, particularly her native Yorkshire and also the Lake District. She completed the southern half of the Pennine Way, although time constraints of a busy schedule unfortunately prevented completion of the northern section.
She took up running in 2007, completing the Great North Run twice and the 2009 London Marathon – raising funds for the Blue Cross and Guide Dogs charities in the process. (Truly generous by nature, Lisa supported multiple charities during her lifetime, particularly cancer charities and those specialising in caring for animals.)
Lisa enjoyed several skiing holidays and, although a latecomer to this particular activity, she approached the challenge with characteristic determination. By the time of her last skiing holiday in 2014, she was fearlessly demolishing the mogul fields of Tignes in the French Alps in her own distinctive, yet remarkably effective, style.
In 2012 Lisa faced her biggest challenge when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She underwent radical surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, after which she returned to work. Recurrent disease forced her to give up work in 2016 and further surgery and enrolment in a phase one clinical trial at the Royal Marsden Hospital followed.
Throughout her illness, Lisa showed remarkable resilience and determination to keep life as normal as possible. She faced her progressive disease with dignity, immense courage and good humour and made the most of every opportunity to have fun with family and friends. It was a reflection of her significant popularity that, following Lisa’s retirement, one often had to wait quite some time for a window in her diary in order to meet up with her. She maintained her interest in haute couture and continued to enjoy designer shopping from her hospice bed. She spent much of the final months of her life at St Michael’s Hospice, Harrogate, where she organised the wedding to her long-term partner, Mark Wood, in May 2019. She remained truly selfless and accepting, even planning her own funeral arrangements to help reduce her family’s distress.
She was survived by her husband Mark, her mother Janet and her sister Nicola.
Mark Wood
Ann Cuthbert
[BMJ 2020 368 299 www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m299 – accessed 29 January 2021]