Dr Helen Patel, a retired Dundee doctor who helped establish the region’s breast cancer screening programme at Ninewells Hospital, is being remembered as a “kind and generous person” whose work saved countless lives and whose compassion left a lasting mark on all who knew her.
Helen, who practised medicine using her maiden name Dr Dally, died peacefully in her sleep at her home in Dunkeld on Saturday April 19 aged 80.
She had been courageously battling mucosal malignant melanoma – a rare and aggressive cancer – for three years.
A devoted wife, mother of three, and grandmother of five, she is being mourned by her husband of nearly 55 years, Naren Patel, who described her as a deeply empathetic woman and a gifted doctor who put patients at ease with extraordinary kindness and understanding.
“Many patients in Dundee and Tayside are grateful for her dedication to their care,” said Naren.
“Her kind and generous personality always shone through. She always had a smile and a kind word for anyone she met. She treated everyone with equal respect and was always ready to help.”
Helen Patel took everyone at ‘face value’
Reflecting on their life together, Naren recalled the early days of their relationship with warmth and humour.
“Apart from her good looks and her hair, what struck me most was how she took everyone at face value,” he said.
“She always said she never met a bad person. There might be differences, but no one was really bad.”
Even during her illness, Helen remained characteristically others-focused.
“When people came to visit her while she was unwell, she noticed their discomfort and would immediately ease their distress,” he added.
“She usually did this by steering the conversation away from herself and toward something about them.”
Helen spent her early years in Dundee, Forfar and Edzell
Helen Patel, née Dally, was born on August 1 1944, at Jessop Hospital in Sheffield.
Her birth coincided with the second wedding anniversary of her parents, Wilfred and Nora Dally.
With the Second World War still raging, her father was serving with the Field Ambulance Division in Greece and wouldn’t meet his daughter until she was nearly two years old. He suggested the name Helen, inspired by its Greek origins.
Helen spent her earliest years with her mother – who was a trained nurse and midwife -at her maternal grandparents’ home in Retford, Nottinghamshire.
After the war, her father, influenced by his wartime experiences, studied medicine at St Andrews University and Queen’s College Dundee.
The young family moved to Dundee, living in modest student housing in Westfield Place.
Helen remembered her early childhood as happy, despite financial constraints.
She attended Park Place School in Dundee – now the site of a car park – before the family relocated to Forfar and later Edzell, where her father ran a single-handed general practice with her mother managing calls from home.
Helen attended Brechin High School, cycling daily from Edzell, and was inspired by her father’s devotion to medicine.
She enrolled at St Andrews University in 1961 at the age of 17, studying both there and at Queen’s College Dundee.
She graduated with commendation in 1967, the same year Queen’s College became the University of Dundee.
A career in care
Helen began her medical career at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and the Royal Infirmary in Inverness, later returning to Dundee’s Maryfield Hospital to train in obstetrics.
It was there she met fellow doctor Naren Patel. Love blossomed and the couple married on September 25 1970, at the Church of Scotland in Edzell in a Quaker ceremony – reflecting Helen’s upbringing.
Initially aspiring to a career in paediatrics, she worked in neonatal care at Maryfield before deciding to pursue general practice.
She trained at Westgate General Practice Centre, temporarily taking over the duties of senior partner Dr Lawson during his extended absence.
Her commitment and capability earned her membership in the Royal College of General Practitioners.
For more than 30 years, Helen practised medicine part-time while raising a family and supporting her husband’s career.
She worked in family planning and general practice clinics throughout Tayside.
One of her most important contributions came as she was part of the team which launched the NHS breast cancer screening programme in the region.
How significant was the Ninewells Hospital breast screening service?
As a breast cancer diagnosis doctor at Ninewells, she helped establish early detection services that have benefitted generations of women. She remained in that role until her retirement.
A chance encounter with Professor Ho Kei Ma from the University of Hong Kong led to a broader impact.
A conversation about breast screening in Dundee sparked international collaboration, with the Dundee team helping to develop a similar programme in Hong Kong.
She worked closely with esteemed colleagues such as Dr Alistair Thompson and Dr Lovell-Jones, who held her in high regard.
“Helen was a dedicated and respected doctor,” said one colleague. “Her clinical knowledge was matched by her compassion.”
Though passionate about patient care, Helen was never enamoured with the growing bureaucracy of modern healthcare.
“She enjoyed being a doctor,” said Naren: “but she loathed the administrative side. She used to call meetings ‘chat shows’ and dreaded the sight of flip charts.”
Devotion to family, a life beyond medicine and brave cancer fight
Outside her professional life, Helen loved the outdoors, had a lifelong passion for gardening, and was a voracious reader. She was devoted to her family and deeply admired as a wife, mother, and grandmother.
The Patels lived in Dundee from their marriage in 1970 until moving to Dunkeld in 2003, though they maintained strong ties to the city through friendships and academic connections.
In recent years, Helen faced her cancer diagnosis with strength and grace.
Mucosal malignant melanoma is an exceptionally rare and aggressive cancer.
“It’s important for people to know that even doctors get these devastating diseases,” said Naren, who himself was a distinguished obstetrician who worked for more than 30 years at Ninewells Hospital.
“The fact she survived three years is thanks to the outstanding care she received at the Royal Marsden Hospital, Ninewells, her local GP surgery in Dunkeld and the dedicated district and Macmillan nurses who made her final days peaceful and pain-free.”
Helen died peacefully at home on April 19.
She is survived by her husband, (Lord) Naren Patel, her children – Susan, Mark, and Neil (two doctors and one a senior partner at McKinsey & Company) – and five grandchildren.
Her funeral service will be held at Dunkeld Cathedral on Wednesday April 30 at 2pm.
All friends and colleagues are warmly invited.
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