50 Cities: The adventures of a medical student turned specialist doctor

By Graham Hughes

50 Cities is a travel book with a difference. It follows the travels of Graham Hughes, professor of medicine and renowned expert in rheumatic diseases, notably Lupus. It shines a light not only on the cities (and some towns) visited by Professor Hughes, but also by some of the friends and medical colleagues encountered on his medical travels.Following on from his acclaimed biographyTales of a Flying Doctor, 50 Citiesis a wide-ranging collection of, often hilarious, travel anecdotes for those interested in medical history. This short volume provides a portrait of rheumatology over the past 50 years or so.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brown Dog Books
• Release date: May 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9781839527678

Book preview

FRANCE

France holds a special place in my heart. From my junior doctor days hitchhiking to Paris to catch up with my fiancée Monica (who was working as an au pair), to our regular holidays with our young children in Le Touquet; to my medical links including working a month in Lariboisière Hospital near the Gare du Nord. From Marseilles where I was honoured with a docteur honoris causa; to Brest where I met a lifelong friend, Pierre Youinou; to Lyon, home of an outstanding rheumatologist, Pierre Miossec; to Annecy, one of the most beautiful towns in the world.

Nice also brings back many happy memories, including the first Anglo-French rheumatology meeting, and a hosting of the marvellous international immunology meetings organised by my dear friend, Yehuda Shoenfeld. At one of these meetings, we were taken to visit an art exhibition in an exclusive villa up in the hills near St Paul de Vence, a town famous for its restaurant La Colombe D’Or. The exhibition was called White on Black – or possibly Black on White. Ninety canvases. And yes, my French memories must include Orleans, where the wheel fell off our ‘holiday’ van.

PARIS

Our first visit to Paris, believe it or not, was by air. A regular air service had opened up between Lympne and Beauvais (with a bus link from Beauvais to central Paris), and a very cheap hotel with a French-style loo at the end of the corridor. A week of art museums and bistros.

Some years later I was asked to spend a month in Paris. This was a collaborative venture sponsored by the French government research authority, INSERM, to pass on the new tests for lupus which I had been involved with in New York. For a couple of Francophiles (Monica and I), this was a wonderful few weeks, commuting each morning from Rue St Didier via the metro. Lariboisière is an old respected hospital near Gare du Nord. Opposite our lab window there was an old Parisian stand-up pissoir.

Our favourite visiting spot was the Jeu de Paume with its exhibition of impressionist paintings. Another was Notre-Dame Cathedral. One of our good friends from our east London days had landed a job in Paris, working for OECD, the financial/political organisation. He and his wife had a fifth-floor flat opposite Notre-Dame, overlooking the roof and the gargoyles. A supper to remember.

I remember the first time I had visited Notre-Dame, where the organist was in full flow. One realises the impact on the senses of the peasants centuries ago with glorious music, incense, robes, procession and theatre, all in wonderful harmony.

Over the years I made many friends with my Paris colleagues. One in particular, Dr Charles Piette, proved to be a very talented medical researcher. He and I shared many of our findings and ideas. He ran an outstanding unit in Cochin Hospital in the centre of Paris. He was a free spirit, with interests far beyond medicine. Then, one day he was gone – taken up a job as one of the medical team in Formula 1 car racing!

BREST

Soon after my return from New York, I received an invitation to come to Brest (in the far west corner of Brittany). The invitation came from Pierre Youinou, a clinician and academic running a successful research centre there. The invitation, as it happens, was one of the first following our publications on anti-DNA testing in lupus. The invitation resulted in a fascinating journey, another lifelong friendship, and a feeling of ‘Breton bonding’ between aspects of Brittany, and Wales and Cornwall in the UK. I was warmly welcomed by Pierre and his team and spent the night in his home (in the children’s former bedroom).

It had been years since my student youth hostelling visits to the region and an unforgettable overnight stay on the western island of Île d’Ouessant. Pierre took me around his province – very much an ocean lifestyle. One anecdote that still lingers in my memory relates to Brest airport – a small airport whose once-a-week highlight was the ‘cabbage jumbo’, a 747 transport airliner which took a full load of cabbages to the east coast of America. (The veracity of this anecdote is uncertain.)

Some years later, Pierre organised a regular international conference on lupus, which brought together a very large group of world leaders in lupus research. As might be expected, these conferences were exceptional, and the after-dinner speeches memorable.

Sadly, late last year, Pierre died. His obituary, published in LUPUS (2022) 31 (12).1685, was a warm and factual