Obituary: Peter Swinburn

By JO-MARIE BROWN

Anti-smoking campaigner and pioneer in asthma treatment. Died last week in Auckland, aged 74.

Dr Peter Swinburn was a "doctor with a capital D." He was a founding member of both the Action on Smoking and Health lobby group (ASH) and the Auckland Asthma Society, and a leading respiratory physician who continued to treat patients up until his sudden death 10 days ago.

His nephew, former medical director of the Heart Foundation Dr Boyd Swinburn, said his uncle was a rare doctor who worked with both individual patients and the community to improve people's health.

Born in Taranaki, Dr Peter Swinburn studied medicine at Otago University and travelled to England before returning home to work at Green Lane Hospital in the late 1950s. It was there that his innovative approach to asthma treatment flourished into what has now become standard medical practice.

"He was certainly one of the first people to take asthma seriously, and he worked with patients to help them manage themselves instead of the classical doctor role, which was about telling the patients what to do," Dr Boyd Swinburn said.

Dr Peter Swinburn helped to found the Auckland Asthma Society in 1970, serving as its president for five years in the late 1980s before being made its patron in 1997.



As a passionate anti-smoking campaigner, he also co-founded New Zealand's leading anti-smoking lobby group ASH in 1982. ASH director Trish Fraser said Dr Peter Swinburn had held the organisation's chairmanship since 1991 and had considered resigning earlier this year.

"But when the time came he couldn't quite do it," Ms Fraser said.

"He just loved ASH and he's given the organisation a lot of stability and credibility.

Outside the medical world, Dr Boyd Swinburn said his uncle loved being outdoors. "He was a wonderful gardener, a keen fisherman and loved going out to places like Paihia and the Bay of Islands."

Dr Peter Swinburn is survived by his wife Heather, son Mathew and daughters Elizabeth, Lisa and Dana.