Diana Chan

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Diana Chan (Vugler) was born and brought up in Bangor, north Wales. She was the youngest of seven siblings. Diana studied medicine at the University of Sheffield and graduated in 2000. Following on from her house officer and senior house officer jobs in Sheffield and Hull, her initial plan was to pursue a career in general practice. She completed her GP training in Hemel Hempstead and London and gained membership of the Royal College of GPs in 2006.

Although Diana enjoyed aspects of being a GP, she found psychiatry particularly interesting during her training. With the full support of her neuroscientist husband, Anthony, she decided to retrain as a psychiatrist and completed her royal college membership in 2008.

During her training, Diana published a paper entitled “I want to be bipolar,” which explored the rise in self diagnosis occurring as a result of media coverage of the illness. This was widely reported in the media, including BBC News, and made the front cover of the Psychiatrist journal.

Diana had always held a particular interest in helping older people. She had been very close to her grandfather, who lived to age 100 and about whom she spoke frequently long after his death. In 2011 she completed a masters degree and gained an MSc in psychiatric research from University College London. As part of this, she studied and published on grief reaction in carers of patients with dementia. Diana’s research collaborators have commented that she was exceptionally bright and gifted academically and that she was passionate about her research, which continues to be much cited. This led to her decision to pursue a career in old age psychiatry, and she accepted a consultant post in Southampton in 2014.

Diana’s consultant colleagues have described her as a dedicated, compassionate psychiatrist, who was well regarded by her patients and their families. They have also remarked on that she excelled at teaching, inspiring a number of junior doctors to follow her path.

Diana had a large network of close friends she had known from her childhood and university years who will miss her calm and measured approach to life and her capacity for long lasting friendship.

Above all, Diana was the loving wife of Anthony Vugler, whom she married in a beautiful ceremony in Wales in 2005, and the devoted mother of their two boys, Henry, aged 7, and James, aged 3. Sadly Diana lost her father in 2014, but she also leaves her mother, three brothers, and three sisters.