Sharad Vaidya

Sharad Vaidya (7 March 1936 to 19 October 2000) was an Indian surgeon who specialized in cancer surgery. He came from a family that had practised medicine for over 350 years and qualified as a doctor and then as a surgeon at the University of Bombay and King Edward Memorial Hospital, Bombay. After five years as assistant professor of surgery at Goa Medical College he set up the Vaidya Hospital in Panaji with his wife, Dr Nirmala Vaidya, and became known for general, orthopaedic and cancer surgery and as the first surgeon to practise neurosurgery in Goa. He founded the Goa Cancer Society in 1968 and raised the funds to build the Gosalia Memorial Cancer Hospital at Dona Paula, the first full-fledged cancer hospital in the region, serving there as director and chief surgeon without a salary until 1993. He also campaigned against tobacco and persuaded the Goa Legislative Assembly to pass the Goa Prohibition of Tobacco Act 1997.