Terry Hamblin 1943-2012
Visit to Dr. Terry Hamblin at his home in Bournemouth, England, March 2011
From his blog; Mutation of Mortality :
From me:
Damn cancer. Damn, damn cancer.
Terence John Hamblin 1943 – 2012
It is with great sadness that we announce that Terry peacefully passed away shortly before 1:00 AM on Sunday 8th January 2012.
The family wish to thank everyone for their prayers and kind message sent over the period of Terry's illness.
To die in his 60s, a man with so much left to give and such a generous heart for giving.
His intellectual rigor, his demand to examine the raw data and the raw science under the hood, his prying open and breaking down each cancer puzzle into digestible bits that could perhaps someday be modified to gain an advantage on our relentless malignant tormentor, this scientific drive informs how I, when I am at my best, approach my writing on CLL and all my medical education topics. He was a mentor.
But it was his generous soul, his constant giving, and his deep faith that were what I will most remember.
He modeled the joy and blessing that comes from giving. You could read it between the lines of the counsel he offered so often and so freely to the many who reached out to him when overwhelmed in cancer's grip,
He lived in the peace and certitude that comes from his unflinching faith. He even got this skeptical Jew to pray for him, a believing Christian.
I was lucky to visit him and his wife last March at his home.
I will miss him. The whole CLL community will. And many more.
We are the ones dismayed. Or angry. Or both.
We are the ones lost and uneasy.
He is at peace.
Labels: Death, Dr. Terry Hamblin
posted by Brian Koffman at
12:00 PM
5 Comments:
This is very sad indeed. We have all lost someone who was a wonderful example of what it is to be a Christian. He is now in the presence of the LORD who he so unashamedly proclaimed. Well done good and faithful servant.
-Janet Morrison
Dear Brian,
Thanks for your comments regarding Terry's untimely passing. I worked together with Terry on the leadership of Lansdowne Baptist Church Bournemouth for around nine years up to 1993.
There is a verse in Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi in which the apostle says that, ‘for him to live was Christ, and that to die was gain.’ Terry, most certainly lived by that; he had both an incredible sense of calling within the world of medicine but he also knew that the sacrificial death and resurrection of his saviour was worth any sacrifice he could have made. Terry’s passing doesn’t seem to benefit anyone, I agree. But if he has gained ‘the prize’ then we can only but say: ‘Well done good and faithful servant.
As a matter of interest I’m currently doing research in the area of evolutionary theodicy at the University of Exeter. I remain a committed Christian and have the same hope that Terry has now realised.It was Elie Wiesel who said that if we don’t pray, even when we have no heart, we cut our selves off from God.
Kind Regards.
Derek
Terribly sorry, keep his memory alive in your heart with all your favorite moments.
Bunny
Dr. K,
I am so sorry to hear of your loss. Mr. Hamblin sounds like a wonderful man.......a good friend to all he meets.
I am thankful to know that he is at home with the Lord and is no longer in pain.
Blessings on this beautiful Monday.
J
Brian,
Beautifully put. I, too, agnostic or atheist .. not sure which .. prayed to Dr. Hamblin's God, honoring such a life well lived.
Lynn
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