qualified M.B.; B.Ch. at the Witwatersrand University and then became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons at Edinburgh. I left South Africa to start training in Plastic Surgery but trained in Cardio-thoracic surgery and returned to Cape Town to work with Prof. Christiaan Barnard for several years and was involved in the first double heart transplant. However after completing my training I did a radical change and started specialising in plastic surgery. My mentor was Dr David Davies who generously showed me the depth of creative plastic and cosmetic surgery. I went into practice with Dr Davied Davies in 1980.