Dr John Lawrenson recently retired as head of the paediatric cardiology service of the Western Cape. This service offers cardiology services to children at Tygerberg and Red Cross Children’s Hospitals and is affiliated to the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University. Dr Lawrenson is still associated with the unit and its affiliated research unit the Children’s Heart Disease Research Unit. He is a general cardiologist, but his main interests are cardiac imaging and rheumatic heart disease.