Dr Sidney Bindemann BSc, MSc, CSci, PhD, CPsychol, AFBPsS was a clinical psychologist and United Reformed Church (URC) minister, who may rightly be regarded as a founding figure within the modern discipline of psycho-oncology. His appointment as Principal Clinical Psychologist in the 70s to the Department of Clinical Oncology, University of Glasgow, was the first full-time appointment of its kind to be made anywhere in the UK. Cancer Research UK (then CRC) described his research activities of those days as “innovative and pioneering”. Dr Bindemann was a founding (and the first) UK member of the EORTC Quality of Life Study Group, as well as of the European Society of Psychosocial Oncology (ESPO); later to become the European Federation {EFPOS). He was similarly a founding member of the British Psycho-oncology Society (BPOS) and was elected to “life” membership in 1999 in recognition of his services to the Society in particular, and psycho-oncology in general. He also held the office of Hon. Senior Lecturer for several years in the University of Glasgow’s Oncology Department, Faculty of Medicine.
For many years before retirement, Dr Bindemann served as Consultant Clinical Psychologist at the Beatson Oncology Centre (BOC), Glasgow and Director of the Phoenix Cancer Foundation (a Scottish Cancer Charity at that time, which he founded). During retirement, Dr Bindemann retained a lively interest in all matters concerning both valid assessment and active proliferation of Quality of Life, especially in patients suffering from serious and life-threatening illnesses. Aged 86 and only a few months before he died, he published a book based on his experiences and to offer ongoing support to those in need. It is titled ‘Living & Coping with Cancer…..Help & Support through Letters from a Friend’ and is available in paperback via Amazon or ebook via Kindle. Dr Bindemann died peacefully on Saturday the 8th August 2020.