HERALD proprietor Sir Ray Tindle entertained Frimley Park Hospital’s departing surgeon Andrew McCombe to lunch at the Old Court House in Farnham on Monday, December 21.

Mr McCombe was the surgeon who operated on Sir Ray when he had throat cancer about 19 years ago. He is leaving Frimley Park Hospital and taking up a position at the Mediclinic City Hospital in Dubai.

Andrew became a consultant ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeon at Frimley in 1995. 

As a specialist in head and neck surgery he has been highly active in developing extended services to support patients with head and neck problems including setting up a ‘Lump and Bump’ clinic, appointing Emma Cowdrill as a specialist head and neck nurse and launching a laryngectomy self-help group.

As well as writing extensively on the broader subject of ENT, Mr McCombe was editor of the specialist journal ENT News from 1997 to 2002.

He has helped many patients in the local area with medical problems particularly when going through the trauma of losing their voice box through cancer. 

He will be greatly missed at Frimley Park Hospital and all his present and former patients wish him well for the future.