Saad Boulis Wassif was brought up in an aristocratic family in Khartoum, Sudan. He held various appointments in Cardiff, Bristol, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Liverpool, and Edinburgh, as well as Libya. He invented Wassif’s applicator for topical radioactive needle treatment of rectal cancer. It was successfully used in Dutch centres. He developed cancer of the kidney and liver metastases in 1984. Expecting the worst, he decided to retire. However, unexpectedly, he was treated successfully at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London by nephrectomy and partial hepatectomy. He refused postoperative radiotherapy.
After his retirement, he lived in south London till he died. He leaves four children (Theresa, Sarah, Paul, and Peter) and nine grandchildren.
Former consultant radiotherapist Groene Hilledyk Radiotherapy Institute, Rotterdam (1982) (b 1 February 1922; q Alexandria 1953; FRCR (London), DMRT (London), LMSSA (London)), died from heart failure on 23 November 2007.