Dr John Searle - The superfit anaesthetist who tackled arthritis head on.

'Row as though you are being chased by crocodiles!'

When a British anaesthetist, Dr John Searle, was about to retire from medicine in his late fifties and give up his beloved walking holidays in the Swiss Alps because of the onset of rheumatoid arthritis, he decided to go elsewhere for advice.

The second opinion came from a fitness coach who told the specialist in so many words to ignore what he had been told and to jump on a rowing machine and pull as hard as he could.

The fitness coach’s exact words were to exercise “as if being chased by crocodiles.” So instead of retiring to a quiet life and nurse his failing health, the anaesthetist did what he was told and regained such a high level of fitness that he climbed Mount Kilamanjaro in Tanzania, went surfing with his grandchildren and triumphed over a bout of cancer.

And having experienced the benefits of vigorous exercise, for good measure he added the qualification of fitness instructor to an already big CV.

With a particular interest in palliative care and a specific desire to 'find a better way' he also found the time to found Hospiscare. He and his wife Elizabeth were inspired by a lecture from Dame Cicely Saunders and became impassioned about making conditions better for those diagnosed with a terminal illness.

I am indebted for this information to an obituary in the British newspaper The Times, one of my favourite journals, where I often read about high-achieving lives.

And Dr. Searle’s life was certainly high-achieving. Over his 81 years he not only qualified as an anaesthetist, also becoming a specialist in intensive care, but was also ordained in his spare time as an Anglican priest, was appointed honorary chief medical officer of Britain’s Fitness Industry Association and, of course, managed to flee crocodiles.