Huge congratulations to Sue and Chris Evans (MBChB 1964) who celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary on 5 February. The couple who met at the University of Liverpool forged impressive careers, remaining in the city all their working lives, caring for countless locals in the process.
Sue and Chris’ milestone wedding anniversary was celebrated by family, friends and even appeared in the Liverpool Echo, where the couple shared how they first met in medical school, in an anatomy class, and went on to marry a few years later at Mossley Hill Parish Church.
“He was tall, good fun and liked sports, so I got keen on him. Then one day he asked me if I’d like to go to the university ball with him and I thought, ‘yes please’, and that was it then."
Here, Sue and Chris share the fascinating story of their medical careers here in Liverpool and what they love most about the city they still call home.
“Susan Fuld came up to Liverpool Medical School from Huyton College in 1958, joining many clubs and societies in her first year, including choral and lacrosse to subsequently become captain of the Medics, University, Northern Universities and Women's Inter-Varsity Athletics Board (WIVAB) teams. She continued playing for Liverpool Ladies until she was 60 years young.
Chris Evans, from Widnes, entered second year on a state scholarship, and the couple became an item in 1960 having met in the DR (anatomy museum). Thereafter in groups of up to eight students, they bonded on clinical firms in the then teaching hospitals and made lifelong friends.
Graduating in 1964, we still organise our five-yearly reunions having shared the Owen T Williams prize at graduation.
We have memories of dancing to the Beatles at the Rag Ball in the New Brighton tower ballroom and rocking the Mersey Ferry during Rag week.
At Mill Road Maternity hospital in November 1963, we learned that JFK had been shot dead. None of us went to bed.
Susan did her house jobs at Broadgreen hospital and Chris at Clatterbridge. Both continued with their sports (tennis and cricket for Chris).
After a year’s Psychiatry at Sefton General hospital Sue entered the University Dermatology Department for training and research. Her MD thesis was on the carcinogenic effects of arsenic on which she became a world expert, travelling especially to Bangladesh and lectured at the Royal College of Physicians in London on the “ubiquitous poison.”
She was appointed a consultant dermatologist to Whiston, St Helens and Broadgreen Hospitals, picking up enroute MRCP and FRCP.
The couple married in 1966 and have 3 children and 4 grandchildren, none of whom are medics (so far!).
Susan is a life member of the Liverpool Medical Institution, and was its president in 1997, and the longest serving member of the Merseyside Medical Benevolent Fund. She escorted Princess Ann on the opening of the refurbished Medical Institution. Susan retired from the NHS in 2000.
After his house jobs, Chris trained as a physician in posts at Mossley Hill, Walton Neurology and the Royal Southern from where he passed MRCP. He became a Senior Medical Registrar to the Broadgreen Heart and Chest Unit where under the guidance of his mentor Dr Colin Ogilvie he completed his MD on overall and regional lung function in bronchial asthma. He studied in Uppsala Sweden in 1972-3 where Chris and Sue lived with their baby daughter before returning to Liverpool and moving into a new home in Allerton, where they still live.
Chris was appointed Senior Lecturer at the School of Medicine with sessions as a Consultant Physician in the “old” Royal Infirmary. On his birthday, 2 October, in 1978 Chris became a full time NHS physician on the opening of the “new” Royal Liverpool Hospital until he retired in 2003.
There, he became clinical sub-Dean, chairing the Grand Rounds on a Friday morning and the Student Circus on a Friday afternoon. He was Honorary President of the LMSS and in 1991 President of the Liverpool Medical Institution. He was invited to become a member of the Medical Defence Union in London, going on to become its Chairman and President until 2012.
In 1999, he was elected academic Vice President of the Royal College of Physicians and travelled extensively to examine and lecture. In 2007 he gave the Henry Cohen History of Medicine Lecture in the University and in 2010 became president of the Liverpool Artists Club. He was still playing tennis and skiing and became president of the Liverpool Cricket Club in 2016 when he joined Susan as the chair of the Trustees of the MMBF.
We have both enjoyed our lives in this city, witnessing its decline in the eighties and its current revival.
We have enjoyed the cultural opportunities the city offers, its people and importantly their sense of humour.
Living by Calderstones Park we have walked our Scottish terrier dogs there for 50 plus years, not forgetting regular holidays to the Alps, America, Pembrokeshire, and trips in France by car or canal.
We both retain our sense of humour and still avidly follow the progress of LFC which all our children and some grandchildren now share.”
Congratulations on your impressive clinical legacies and the lovely family you have created Sue and Chris! We love to hear where life’s roads have taken you after graduation. Please do continue to share your stories with us at alumni@liverpool.ac.uk.