My husband, Stuart Farrimond, who has died aged 43 of a brain tumour, was a bestselling science author, educator and broadcaster with an extraordinary gift for making science feel human and accessible.
In 2008, a year after Stu and I married, our lives were turned upside down by his diagnosis. He was unshakeably positive and always focused on making the most of the cards he had been dealt. Rather than retreating in the face of a life-limiting cancer diagnosis, he poured his energy into reinvention.
He redirected his career from clinical medicine into science education and communication, and thrived. Through his writing and media work, Dr Stu became a familiar name in the world of popular science. He made countless appearances on national television and his books, including The Science of Cooking (2017), The Science of Spice (2018) and The Science of Living (2021), are now in more than a million homes around the world. Yet he remained humble and grounded in his quiet faith.
After founding his own science magazine project, Guru, in 2011, which received Wellcome Trust funding and brought together some of the top science minds from around the world, Stu contributed regularly to news outlets, including the BBC, New Scientist and the Guardian.
His true gift was in making a connection. Whether giving a talk or simply chatting to friends over a coffee, Stu had an uncanny ability to spot the person at the edge of the room – the one who felt left out – and draw them in. He had a genuine interest in other people.
Born in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, Stu was the son of Maree, a community pharmacist, and Bob Farrimond, who worked for Britannic Insurance, and a younger brother to Laura. The family moved to Nottingham when he was a baby, and then to Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire when he was eight. When he was 15, they relocated to Jersey, where Stu completed his GCSEs and A-levels at Hautlieu school. He went on to study medicine at the University of Nottingham.
Stu and I met while he was still at Nottingham, and I was working as a nursery nurse in Birmingham, and we married in 2007. He completed his training at Musgrove Park hospital in Taunton before being accepted on to the GP training programme at the Royal United hospital in Bath, and we settled in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
At home, he was a quiet and caring soul, doing the morning crossword, tending the garden, walking our dog, Winston, and always, always making me laugh.
He is survived by me, Maree and Bob, and Laura.
