Dan Tunstall Pedoe

Dan Tunstall Pedoe (30 December 1939, Southampton – 13 February 2015, London) – "Dr Dan" and the "father of marathon medicine" – was a cardiologist who developed pioneering methods of diagnosis. He is popularly known for his contributions to sports medicine, particularly his support of the London Marathon.

Family and education Tunstall Pedoe was the son of the academic mathematician and geometer, Daniel Pedoe, and Mary Tunstall. His twin brother, Hugh, was also a cardiologist, but who worked in teaching. The brothers and their elder sister, Naomi, were born when their father was an assistant lecturer at Southampton University. For much of the children's childhood, their father worked abroad, in Khartoum and Singapore, although the family spent Christmasses together.

The twins were educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School, at the time located in Hampstead, and Dulwich College. They attended King's College, Cambridge, together. Dan studied at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London and earned a PhD at Wolfson College, Oxford, studying the measurement of blood flow in the heart. He also spent a year in post-graduate study in California. He concluded his London Marathon tenure with a pair of medical journal articles summarizing key aspects of the experience.

As well as an amateur runner, Tunstall Pedoe was also a keen astronomer, chess player and amateur photographer, specialising in macro pictures of wildlife. His photographic work was displayed in health centres in Hackney.

Death Tunstall Pedoe died from a heart attack in London on 13 February 2015, having suffered from Parkinson's disease. His wife, Robin, died in 2014; he was survived by his twin brother, Hugh (emeritus professor of cardiovascular epidemiology), his children, Nadine, Simon and Ian, and by three granddaughters.