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Professor Patrick Johnston: An Appreciation

Frank Costello
Frank Costello Frank Costello

THE abrupt departure from this life of Paddy Johnston, a visionary with so much more ahead of him, at the age of 59, will take a long time to sink in.

But our efforts in trying to comprehend the impact of Paddy’s leaving us to the fabric of our society here on the civic and professional levels is dwarfed by the utter magnitude of his loss to his wife Iseult and their sons Seamus, Eoghan, Ruairi and Niall.

For me, there is on the very personal knowledge that, but for him and his tireless work as an oncologist as part of a team assisting me during my fight against cancer 17 years ago, I would not now be typing these words.

That I write them knowing that, as much as I tried to thank him to his red faced embarrassment all these years ago, I do so now again while commenting on his sad passing.

The effort is eased somewhat by my being able to underscore with certitude that there was one face to the Paddy Johnston who cared for me at Belfast City Hospital and who helped direct the treatment that helped me beat the odds, and the very determined face on the man we saw in public.

But the published litany of his achievements for his ground breaking medical accomplishments do not tell us is that Paddy Johnston could have taken his skills in oncology to many other places for great personal gain.

Indeed he could have remained and prospered in the US after his impressive stint at the National Institute of Health in Washington, DC.

Instead he chose to return to this island and the North in particular and build the platform for his vision of a Cancer Centre that would envelop Queens University and Belfast City Hospital. It was to here that he also came to grow and raise his family.

In reality Paddy Johnston helped bring the world to us and the Cancer Centre he spearheaded is a living example of that. Today many people at home and abroad, myself included, owe their lives to his tenacity and selflessness with others to come God willing.

The enormous reservoir of social capital and credibility Paddy Johnston built during his time in the US became a source for funding his vision in fighting cancer.

He knew how to leverage the support her garnered by investments from companies like Mutual of America to gain funding from other countries and EU as well for valuable research.

The also meant attracting medical talent from all over to Belfast to build synergies and clusters and jobs here that simply would not have happened otherwise.

Just last week he played a central role at Belfast City Hall he was at the centre of the launch of a joining Belfast City Council Vision project with Queens University on “Global Thinking.”

He had also been at the forefront of community engagement projects for the outside of the University while supporting efforts within the Queen's community to promote the overall well being of the students as well as their academic attainments.

There was a lot to Paddy Johnston and a lot he has left us.

* Dr Francis Costello, who is from Boston and based in Belfast, is a business consultant and academic.