A Basic Lesson Relearnt: The singing histopathologist

David was not a frequent attender at surgery on his own behalf. With his marching gait and handlebar moustache, I would see him striding around the practice area dispensing Royal British Legion aid and support to my patients. One day, however, he came to tell me that he was dying. He demonstrated his jaundice with a wry smile and then proffered the diagnosis–cancer of the bile duct. “It runs in my family, my father died of it,” he said …