More than 1300 people took part in the first week of voting for the BMJ Group’s lifetime achievement award, after the shortlist was announced on 31 January (BMJ 2009;338:b325).

The 10 candidates had been chosen by a BMJ panel on the basis of who had made a unique and substantial contribution to improving health care.

To discover what had prompted people to nominate their colleagues or friends, the BMJ spoke to 10 of the people who had either nominated or are supporting one of the shortlisted candidates.

Backing Patrick Bradley, a professor and head and neck oncological surgeon at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, are four different doctors. One colleague, Nick Jones from the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the same trust, suggests “there is nothing that he has not done or contributed to.”

Other supporters who also nominated him, Antony Narula, a consultant ear, nose, and throat surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital, London; Vinidh Paleri, a consultant head and …