Dublin-born doctor who was an authority on treating cancer in children

Dr Marian Malone, who has died aged 62, was a consultant paediatric pathologist who made a very significant contribution to the treatment of cancer in children. Born in Dublin and educated at Loreto College, St Stephen's Green, she graduated in medicine in 1977 from University College Dublin, an institution where her father, Seán Malone, was professor of psychiatry.

Her mother, Brighid (née Quinn), was a doctor too, being one of the first female assistant masters at the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, in the late 1940s.

Following an internship at the Mater hospital in Dublin, she moved to London to begin training in pathology at the London Hospital under Prof Sir Colin Berry. A lecture by Prof Brian Lake awakened in her an interest in paediatric pathology, and shortly afterwards she moved to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London to train in the subject. During a brief secondment to King's College Hospital, she met her future husband, Dr Peter Rose.

She became head of the pathology department at Great Ormond Street in 2004. Although continuing to share equally in the general workload, she developed a special interest in dermatopathology and immunopathology and ran the multidisciplinary team meetings in both these disciplines.

Gentle humour

She was an excellent teacher. With her unique combination of gentle humour and appetite to share her knowledge, she trained many of the paediatric pathologists practising in the UK today and also trained many paediatricians in pathology.

She was an invited speaker at many international meetings on topics in paediatric pathology but most especially on the histiocytic disorders, on which she was a world authority. She was the author of more than 100 publications and co-author in 2009 with her Great Ormond Street colleagues of the textbook Diagnostic Pediatric Surgical Pathology. For 14 years she was a member of the editorial board, and European editor, of the journal Pediatric and Developmental Pathology and was a reviewer of papers for other journals.

She was an active member of the Royal College of Pathologists in the UK and chair of its examiners’ panel in paediatric pathology from 2003 to 2008. In recognition of her contribution to children’s health in the UK, she was awarded an honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in November 2014.

Marian Malone carried out all her professional duties diligently, but also with great humanity, always with a smile and a kind word for even the most junior staff. When Queen Elizabeth visited Great Ormond Street in February 2002, she broke with official protocol to offer her condolences on the very recent death of her sister, Princess Margaret, on the grounds that it seemed inhuman not to.

Love of Connemara

As a senior doctor she nurtured the first faltering steps of many trainees in paediatric pathology and, indeed, in other disciplines. She maintained strong links with her homeland and had a large extended family in Ireland whom she visited frequently. She especially loved Connemara and holidayed there nearly every year.

She had won prizes for drama and music as a young woman and maintained a lifelong passion for the theatre. Living in London allowed her to indulge that passion. She kept up to date with literature and read extensively, having a particular fondness for poetry.

The onset of her final illness in September 2014 precipitated her early retirement from Great Ormond Street. Those fortunate enough to attend her valedictory lecture in November of that year will never forget a performance that was intelligent, instructive, uproariously funny and with a hugely positive focus.

She bore her illness with immense courage, dignity and calm, supporting rather than being supported. She had a strong religious faith and although she wore it lightly, it provided her with the immense inner strength that saw her through her final year with hope and indeed joy.

She is survived by her husband Peter, son Richard, sisters Geraldine, Róisín and Niamh and brothers Seán, Kevin and Niall.