Dr Sami Sadek was born in Cairo in 1951 and graduated from Medical School in Cairo with Honours in 1974. He came to Britain with his wife and family in 1980 to further his surgical training, becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and a PhD (University of Dundee) in 1982. Sami’s first consultant appointment was Senior Lecturer in the University of Leeds (1990) specialising in Liver and Kidney Transplantation as well as General Surgery. In 1995 he moved to Portsmouth as Head of Renal Transplant and built up the living donor programme while supervising several MD theses produced by his research fellows. Sami continued with major cancer surgery and developed a major interest in laparoscopic (keyhole) surgery, introducing new laparoscopic procedures to Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust. He retired in 2014, but still works as a part time consultant in General Surgery, which frees up time for special interests, including Egyptology.