Margaret asked me to speak today about Simon’s contribution to the Malaysian curriculum project.
I first met Simon around 20 years ago, we worked on several of the early UK Orthopaedic curricula together.
He was always good at ideas; Usually innovative, occasionally completely insane. Following on from some work we did together in Oman and then Brunei he came back with an idea from Malaysia and gave me a call.
“How would you like to work with me on developing a curriculum for 23 medical specialties?”
I dutifully pointed out that this would involve opening more cans of worms than ever attempted before in a single project? And so, we got started on what became the National Malaysian Postgraduate Medical Curriculum Project. And for the last 5 years Simon and I have travelled to Malaysia together. Even after his cancer diagnosis in 2018 he continued to work on this project and visit Malaysia with me to push things forward.

What is the project about?
The National Curriculum project is complex, it has involved:
Getting agreement from almost every university in Malaysia to commit to a single curriculum for specialty training
Persuading both the Ministry of health and Ministry of Education to support the project
Devising a new approach to writing a curriculum, A template to fit all specialties, new selection and assessment tools, standards for training and trainer training programmes to meet those standards, amongst other things.
Do all this within a fundamental commitment to building local capacity to carry it on in the future.
And setting up the International Curriculum Development Institute in 2016 as a vehicle for sharing our developments with a wider audience.

What did Simon contribute?
He was Simon
He was a Visiting professor from a well-respected UK university with a list of publications the length of a motorway.
He was a council member of a UK Royal College
He had been Visiting Malaysia professionally for over 20 years
He had provided care for a number of notable individuals in the region
He had Provided training both in Malaysia and here in the UK for numerous Malaysian surgeons.
In a nutshell “he was a very big deal”. The fact that “Prof. Simon” was visiting opened doors in some very high places to ensure support for the project.
He was clinically multilingual
In addition to speaking fluent orthopaedic he could converse in specialty languages as diverse as Sports medicine and Psychiatry. Being able to speak to medical specialty writing group using their own terminology.  using examples from their own practice was the foundation on which a lot of trust was built. Sometimes he found it difficult and I could see him searching mentally through chapters of his own clinical experience to find the appropriate words and contexts to describe something.
He gave his time generously
In addition to around 30 one-week visits we spent several hours each week debating how to make something work in Malaysia using our experiences of success and failure in the UK and other places. In addition, he would spend hours trying to capture in writing things we had discussed and provide a clinically acceptable light in which to present them.
He sacrificed his own popularity to make things work
He insisted on telling the truth even when he knew it would make him unpopular with certain organisations back home. Much of the trust we established was based on his openness, truthfulness and candour. And he seemed perfectly at ease walking around with a target permanently painted on his back!
He gave respect to all those he worked with no matter what their seniority
He was prepared to invest time and respect in some quite junior doctors as well as senior politicians and clinical leaders. Some of the most enjoyable events we had were working with house officers on Training the Learner programmes. And we have the video to prove it!
He was utterly committed to making the curriculum project work.
He made sure that what was happening in Malaysia was far in advance of anything happening in curriculum development anywhere else in the world at present and will have a widespread impact on improving postgraduate training in Malaysia and beyond

The best parts of the project for me
Simon was a friend for many years, he became one of my closest friends
Every visit lasted a week, we spent much of that time together. Often discussing the good, the bad and the clinically insane aspects of medical training around the world over a beer or two in the evening.
Simon was man of Insight and Integrity
He believed in questions
As far as Simon was concerned there was no such thing as a stupid question, only people who are too stupid to ask questions
He believed in collaboration
He understood that no matter how much he knew or how much someone else knew you had to combine that knowledge if something was going to work in the real world
He was more than slightly eccentric at times
Simon always wore brightly coloured socks. He felt no compulsion that they should match any other item of clothing he was actually wearing that day.
He was profoundly generous
Prof Adeeba, Dean of Medicine at University Malaya said this in his obituary:
 "Simon's motivation was nothing beyond a genuine passion and commitment to enhancing the quantity and quality of specialists and Malaysian healthcare in general... This passion and commitment to the project, for which he expected no payment or anything in return was unmatched by any person I have ever worked with"
He showed a total committment to medical training throughout his career
He lectured, demonstrated, taught, coached and instructed whenever he was given the opportunity. Often that involved a 7am pickup from the hotel in Malaysia (midnight UK time) to attend a clinic with one of his Malaysian trainees. Even during the last days of his own illness, he insisted that medical students were given the opportunity to come and take a proper history or practise breaking bad news to him with dignity and compassion - whether they wanted it or not!

In closing
On Thursday February 6th I had the privilege of saying goodbye to my friend Simon. On Friday morning I got on a plane to Kuala Lumpur and by the time I arrived on Saturday afternoon he had left us.
During the week that followed there were formal times of silence in his honour, he was the unseen guest at every meeting and conversation and an extensive obituary in one of the national daily papers celebrated his humanitarian contribution to Malaysian healthcare.
But by far the most difficult for me was on Thursday afternoon in a session with the orthopaedic writing team when I I held in my hands some of the first fruits of our efforts; Proof copies of applicant guides and a first draft of the Orthopaedic curriculum
Sadly, he will never see the profound impact he has had on the lives of Malaysians but we have, and will continue to have, the privilege of remembering and celebrating his contribution for many years to come.