{"id":7367,"date":"2026-06-22T12:17:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T11:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/medway-maidstone\/?p=7367"},"modified":"2026-06-22T12:17:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T11:17:36","slug":"sad-farewell-to-honorary-member-dr-mary-buchanan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/medway-maidstone\/2026\/06\/22\/sad-farewell-to-honorary-member-dr-mary-buchanan\/","title":{"rendered":"Sad farewell to Honorary Member, Dr Mary Buchanan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is with great sadness that SI Medway and Maidstone CIO announce the passing of Dr Mary Buchanan on 18 June 2026.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Dr Mary Buchanan, MRCS, LRCP, DFSRH,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine,<\/li>\n<li>Life Member of the British Medical Association and<\/li>\n<li>Honorary Member of Soroptimist International (SI)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mary was in General Medical Practice from 1964-1989 with a special interest in the health of women and adolescents. She had responsibility for the Well Woman Clinic, Adolescent Clinic and Cervical Screening Clinic. She was an Occupational Health Physician with Marks and Spencer running cervical and breast screening programmes. Also, a Clinical Assistant in a hospital breast cancer unit as a Breast Physician.<\/p>\n<p>Mary became a Soroptimist in 1967 joining the former Maidstone Club and hence would have reached 60 years of service next year. She was made an honorary member many years ago.<\/p>\n<p>She held leadership roles as a Soroptimist at local, national and international level. In 1991 she was Chairman of the Soroptimist International Convention and through SI became involved with the World Health Organisation. She was WHO Liaison for Soroptimist International from 2000-2003, which covered Female Genital Mutilation, Safe Motherhood and AIDS programmes that continued during the SIAM (Soroptimist International AIDS Mediation) quadrennial project, which she led as International Liaison from 1995-2000.<\/p>\n<p>However, Mary\u2019s special interest was in women\u2019s cancers.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>From 1989-1999 she was Chairman of the Women&#8217;s Nationwide Cancer Control Campaign. Advocating health education programmes for prevention, early detection and screening of women&#8217;s cancers.<\/li>\n<li>From 1995-1998 she was Chairman of the Cancer Education Group of Great Britain and Ireland, and UK National Representative at the Europe against Cancer Programme at the European Commission.<\/li>\n<li>In 1997 she was appointed to the UK Cervical Screening Action Group by the Chief Medical Officer to review all aspects of cervical screening.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>She also was instrumental in setting up EUROPA DONNA, the European Breast Cancer Coalition in 1993. She became President from 1999 -2004 representing the Coalition in the European and Italian Parliaments. In 2001 she was presented with the European Woman of Achievement Award by the European Union of Women, UK.<\/p>\n<p>Mary also held several key roles with voluntary organisations in Kent, including.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Chairman of Steering Committee for the Maidstone Volunteer Bureau from 1972-1975.<\/li>\n<li>Member and Past Chairman of the Board of Visitors at the Women&#8217;s Prison, East Sutton Park, Kent, from 1972-2000.<\/li>\n<li>Director and Chair of Trustees, Kent Cancer Trust, from 2002.<\/li>\n<li>and Honorary Vice President of Kent Branch, British Red Cross, following several years with Maidstone Red Cross Centre.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mary was married to Dr John Scott Buchanan, JP, who was a physicist and sadly passed away in August 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Mary continued to play an active role in the Medway and Maidstone club until recently usually attending the monthly catch-up meetings on-line, always having read club minutes, and always showing concern about the welfare of other members. She even completed a rail safety survey for the SIGBI review last year after travelling to meet friends.<\/p>\n<p>She will be sadly missed by all who knew her and especially as a Soroptimist sister. She was a truly amazing, gifted and kind woman who made a huge impact in her unique understated way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is with great sadness that SI Medway and Maidstone CIO announce the passing of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":730,"featured_media":7373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[721,177,719,723,724,720,722,718,717],"class_list":["post-7367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-club-news","tag-aids-programmes","tag-europa-donna","tag-female-genital-mutilation","tag-interest-was-in-womens-cancers","tag-kent-cancer-trust","tag-safe-motherhood","tag-soroptimist-international-aids-mediation","tag-who-liaison-for-soroptimist-international","tag-world-health-organisation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sad farewell to Honorary Member, Dr Mary Buchanan | News | Blog | Events | SI Medway and Maidstone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SI Medway and Maidstone : Blog &amp; News : Sad farewell to Honorary Member, Dr Mary Buchanan : Keep up to date with the latest news, articles and events from the Soroptimists of SI Medway and Maidstone . 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