Malcolm Edward Molyneux

Abstract

Inspirational physician devoted to medicine in Malawi. He was born in Wembo-Nyama, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on Nov 20, 1943, and died of leukaemia in Liverpool, UK, on Nov 16, 2021, aged 77 years. While a medical student in the 1960s, and after his elective period spent in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal, Malcolm Molyneux travelled back to London via Malawi. His visit was brief, but proved to be the first stage in what became a lifetime of commitment to medicine and health care in Malawi. Over the next decades he worked for many years in the country's main hospital, did influential research on malaria, helped create the country's first medical school, and mentored countless young Malawians intent on careers in medicine and science. One such is Henry Mwandumba, whose PhD Molyneux supervised and who is now Deputy Director of the Malawi–Liverpool–Wellcome Clinical Research Programme (MLW). Molyneux's contribution to medicine and health care in Malawi was phenomenal, says Mwandumba. “He grasped the needs of the Malawian people…He encouraged research not only to understand their illnesses, but to find ways of translating it to make an impact on the population.” Along with Elizabeth, his wife to be, Molyneux graduated from the then St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College in London, UK, in 1968, and trained in internal medicine. In 1974, as medical missionaries, he and Elizabeth joined a mission hospital at Malosa in Malawi. Their stay lasted for only about a year, says one of Molyneux's long-standing colleagues, Professor Terrie Taylor of the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI, USA. “Malcolm was spotted as a rather extraordinary individual by one of the clinicians working at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH)”, she recalls. Located in the city of Blantyre, the QECH was then, as now, the country's largest hospital. Molyneux gave up his missionary post and joined the staff as a UK-funded specialist. Over the next decade, according to another colleague, neurologist Tom Solomon, Director of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections at the University of Liverpool, “He cut his teeth as a tropical medic. He became a really good clinician in the kind of setting where you don't have many resources for investigations. And he got a feel for what some of the country's major problems were.” In 1984, the then Dean of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), Herbert Gilles, persuaded Molyneux to return to the UK where, for his research and teaching, he was later awarded a chair in tropical medicine. In this period “Malcolm approached the Ministry of Health in Malawi and asked them what they would like researched. They mentioned severe malaria in children”, says Taylor, who had just finished a course at LSTM and suggested teaming up with Molyneux to raise funds. They found a site adjacent to the QECH, and the Blantyre Malaria Project began work in 1990. “They did some really seminal work on what's happening in cerebral malaria”, says Solomon, “They helped to define the disease, and devised a new coma score to rate coma in children.” When Molyneux began working in Malawi, the country had no medical school. It was with his help and support that the University of Malawi College of Medicine opened in 1991. Shortly before this, the Wellcome Trust had instituted a new fellowship scheme to improve careers in tropical medicine. Professor Peter Winstanley, now Director of Strategic Projects at LSTM, thought that Liverpool could help. “On behalf of the University of Liverpool and LSTM, Malcolm and I applied to set up a Wellcome Trust Tropical Centre”, he explains. Their proposal was accepted. “Malcolm became the Director and I was his deputy.” Molyneux returned to Malawi, with Elizabeth working as a paediatrician, and remained there until 2015. “He trained a whole generation of clinical and biomedical researchers in Malawi”, says Solomon. One of his final roles was as editorial Ombudsman for the Lancet journals. “Malcolm served as The Lancet's Ombudsman for over 6 years, handling complainants and editors efficiently, and always courteously”, says Richard Horton, Lancet Editor-in-Chief. “He was fair, objective, respectful, and passionate about medical science and ensuring editorial processes were correct and followed.” These and other qualities had long been recognised by Molyneux's clinical and research colleagues. “He was able to keep the big picture in mind at the same time as drilling down on minute detail”, says Taylor. “He treated every person with dignity. He listened to them”, adds Mwandumba. Solomon agrees: “He was very humble, very modest…a really nice guy who took an interest in everybody.” Besides his wife Elizabeth, Molyneux leaves children Ben, Mat, Sam, and Sassy.