Professor Adrian James Brendan Brady

Adrian Brady was born in Edinburgh of Irish parents Connell and Nancy, who had settled in the heart of the New Town where he and his brother and sister were brought up and where he sang as a boy chorister in St Mary’s Catholic cathedral. He was educated at Scotus Academy and for a final year at the Edinburgh Academy and entered Edinburgh University to study medicine. By that time he had also become an expert skier, competing in the British championships and qualifying as an instructor.

Adrian’s student career was marked by a first class honours BSc, elective periods in both Sydney and the Massachusetts General Hospital, and captaincy of the university skiing team. He graduated MB in 1985 and after house officer posts at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and passing the MRCP in 1988 he obtained rotating SHO then registrar posts in London, working for several of the most notable cardiologists of the time. In 1991 an MRC training fellowship at the National Heart and Lung Institute with Prof Poole-Wilson led to the start of his research career and his MD on the role of nitric oxide in cardiac myocyte contraction. He also won young investigator awards from both the American Heart Association and the British Cardiac Society. He then spent two years in Birmingham with Prof Bill Littler before obtaining his final appointment as consultant cardiologist at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow, later to be awarded honorary professorial status by the university.

Glasgow, with its sadly justified reputation as the heart disease capital of Europe, proved the ideal situation for an industrious and inquisitive researcher. Adrian was a hard-working and greatly respected clinical cardiologist but throughout his career he also continued as an active researcher, lecturer and teacher, with many highly quoted publications. He took a leading national role in investigating therapy for coronary artery disease, hypertension and arrythmias and in contributing to treatment guidelines. He became president of both the British Hypertension Society (encouraging its merger with its Irish equivalent) and the Scottish Cardiac Society and was an active campaigner for preventive public health interventions, including notably among football fans. His interest in prevention ranged more widely than the United Kingdom, including encouraging early detection of hypertension in India. He was an excellent lecturer and accepted many world-wide visiting professorships.

Despite his very full medical life, he never neglected his other passions – his family, his music (he played piano and guitar), and his skiing and mountaineering, especially in 

the Alps. While in London in 1990, he had married Lucy Cooper, with whom he had three children, one of whom has followed his father into medicine. He passed on his musical and sporting interests to his children, which they shared on many holidays. His first marriage ended in divorce and later he married Una Hopkins, who brought her two sons to the family.

While he was still at the height of his powers, a routine blood test revealed acute myeloid leukaemia. On chemotherapy, he continued working in clinics and writing papers until November 2025, and was looked after devotedly by Una during his final illness. 

Anthony Seaton